Methodological Problems Confronting Cross-Cultural Criminological Research Using Official Data

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Abstract
The major aim of this paper is to present and discuss some of the methodological problems involved in utilizing cross-cultural criminal statistics and to examine the reliability of international homicide rates. The major problem criminologists face in comparative research is the problem of comparability. This problem could be examined in light of the discrepancy which might exist between the operational and nominal definitions of various types of crime. The major sources of international crime statistics are Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization) and WHO (World Health Organization). Analysis of the comparability of these sources with regard to homicide revealed zero-order correlation of r = .95 for 33 countries. A longitudinal analysis correlating homicide data from the two sources revealed mixed results. The correlation between the two sources varied for different countries between .04 and .90. Analysis of homicide rates extractedfrom WHO revealed a high level of stability and reliability. It is suggested that the question of reliability and validity of official crime statistics should be studied by means of an empirical analysis rather than through a general conceptualization of the problems involved.

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