Global Crime Rates

“A more complicated problem in comparing crime rates across nations is that of nonstandardized definitions of crime.” (Dammer, 2010) Each country rates their crime a certain and different way. According to the Table 2.3 on page 27 in the book the three highest homicide rate countries are Venezuela, El Salvador and Jamaica. The three lowest homicide rates are Hong Kung, Japan, and Singapore.

Venezuela, El Salvador, and Jamaica have similar economic, social, educational and government that contribute to their high homicide rates. All three countries have high poverty, organized crime, slow economic growth, overcrowded prisons, and poor police. People in these countries usually do not continue their education due to the lack of money. Due to prisons being overcrowded people usually get away with their crimes. “Critics often say the reasons are plain to see but are not tackled. They include poorly paid and often corrupt police (responsible, even by official admission, for 1 in 5 crimes);a corrupt inefficient and politicized judiciary; possibly the most violent and overcrowded prison system in Latin America; and over worked prosecutors, who are often enlisted to persecute the political opposition instead of putting criminals behind bars. (P.G., 2010)

Organized crime such as illegal weapons, class warfare, and drugs also contribute to citizens feeling unsafe. “Most Central American Governments are ill-equipped to tackle the mayhem. (Organised crime in Central America, 2011) . This means the government does not have enough recourse such as police and prisons to keep up with the organized gangs.

As you can see economic, social, educational, and government contributes to the countries high homicide rates. They have organized crime, poverty, slow economic growth, and overcrowded prisons. That also plays a role in high homicide rates.

On the opposite end, Hong Kung, Japan and Singapore, have the lowest homicide rates. They also have common factors such as economics,...