Comparing Crime Data in Europe: Official Crime Statistics and Survey Based Data (Criminological Studies)

The second half of the 20th century has witnessed a watershed in the systematic
study of crime. Until then, crime estimates were locked up in an administrative
monopoly: the only available figures resulted from counting the activities of various
criminal justice agencies. By contrast, from then on, alternative measurement
methods were developed based on general population surveys, which severed the
crime estimates’ dependency on the operation of the police or the courts.
However, widening the range of the tools used for measuring crime will only
be fruitful if their consideration proceeds beyond mere juxtaposition, towards
genuine comparison.

This volume accounts for the comparisons performed in a number of European
countries between official criminal statistics and victimisation surveys.
Bruno Aubusson de Cavarlay has taken stock of research in France, Joachim
Obergfell-Fuchs in Germany, Giovanni Sacchini in Italy, Karin Wittebrood
in the Netherlands, Mike Hough and Paul Norris in the United Kingdom,
finally Sandrine Haymoz, Marcelo Aebi, Martin Killias and Philippe Lamon
in Switzerland. The synthesis for all these countries has been drawn by Jan Van
Dijk. Philippe Robert coordinated the volume.

This comparison was carried out in one of the workpackages of a Coordination
Action (CRIMPREV, see www.crimprev.eu) funded by the European
Commission (under FP6) under the leadership of the Centre national de
la recherche scientifique (CNRS, Groupe européen de recherches sur les
normativités – GERN). This workpackage (coordinated by Philippe Robert
and Renée Zauberman) includes three more European overviews pertaining to
victimisation and insecurity surveys, self reported crime and deviance surveys
and finally evaluative research on safety and crime prevention policies.
This European comparison will be useful for public policies decision makers
at various governmental levels (European, national, regional, local), for crime
prevention NGOs, for journalists, and for academics, researchers and students.