How much should we trust crime statistics? A comparison between EU and US

Paolo Buonanno (1) , Francesco Drago (2, 3) , Roberto Galbiati (4, 5) , Pietro Vertova (1)

1 UniBg - Università degli Studi di Bergamo = University of Bergamo
2 UniMe - Università degli Studi di Messina = University of Messina
3 CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research
4 ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po)
5 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

We discuss measurement issues in crime rates in a cross-country comparative perspective. We show that while homicide and general crime rates follow quite similar patterns in the US this is not always the case in Europe. We provide an explanation of the observed patterns based on the use of fire harms.

Keywords: Crime statistics; Criminal behaviour

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Economics and Finance

Paolo Buonanno, Francesco Drago, Roberto Galbiati, Pietro Vertova. How much should we trust crime statistics? A comparison between EU and US. European Journal of Law and Economics, 2018, 46 (3), pp.343-357. ⟨10.1007/s10657-017-9555-6⟩. ⟨hal-03918177⟩