Comparative and Historical Studies of Crime: Trends, Patterns, Contexts

Abstract

Long-term trends in crime and violence have attracted the attention of social scientists for many years. Most "conventional" crime, especially violent crime, can be regarded as a microcosmic form of conflict. This chapter reviews empirical research to explain variations in crime over time and across nations, with particular attention to non-Western settings and to large-scale cross-national analysis. Crime trends, like most trends in human behavior, rarely appear smooth and uninterrupted. Beginning in the 1990s, a sudden decline in crime rates was visible in most Western nations, persisting even through the economic crisis of 2008. Places as diverse as the former Soviet Union, South Africa, and Taiwan experienced transitions from authoritarian to democratic rule and were soon confronted by significant increases in crime, at least in the short term. The relationship between crime and civil disorder has been subject to considerable impressionistic discussion, but considerably less in the way of systematic analysis.