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Using international microdata to explore country differences in people’s attitudes towards governmental control of crime

Type of case study: Research

Impact

Do governments control crime successfully?

According to the 2006-2007 British Crime Survey, 65 per cent of adults in England and Wales believed there was more crime in the country compared to two years ago. This was despite overall levels of crime remaining broadly stable over the last few years, and indicates that actual and perceived levels of crime differ.

According to a report – Social Trends – published by the Office for National Statistics in 2008, confidence in the criminal justice system is mixed. There are doubts over its effectiveness in dealing with young people accused of crime, protecting the public and dealing with victims.

How does this compare internationally? What do people believe? Are governments successful in controlling crime?

Several international micro datasets are good sources for comparative analysis, most notably the Eurobarometer Survey Series, conducted across all EU countries simultaneously using the same questionnaires, and the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in which an identical core of questions is included in surveys in twenty-two countries.

Using ISSP 2006 data and comparing all available countries, the trust of respondents in Great Britain that their government is successful in handling crime was below average, with only 20 per cent agreeing to this statement (Figure 1). At the upper end of the scale, more than 50 per cent considered their government successful in dealing with crime in Switzerland and West Germany, whereas that proportion was less than 10 per cent in Croatia and Chile.

Figure 1: Government successful in controlling crime

Government successful in controlling crime
Data Source: ISSP 2006

All of the surveyed countries in a special 2005 Eurobarometer expressed hopes that cross-border crime could be fought more efficiently if efforts to deal with it were centrally organised across Europe. In all countries, a clear majority of 70-90 per cent answered ‘Yes’ to the question: ‘Do you consider that policy on the prevention and fight against cross-border crime would be more effective if it were decided jointly at the European Union level rather than by individual Member States?’ (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Cross-border crime prevention and fight would be more effective if it were decided jointly at the European Union level rather than by individual Member States

cross-border crime prevention
Data Source: Eurobarometer 64.3: Foreign Languages, Biotechnology, Organized Crime, and Health Items, data collection 2005

For researchers who are interested in comparing the European results to those of surveys from outside Europe, there are a range of studies to choose from, all of which include crime-related topics.

The LatinobarĂ³metro, an annual public opinion survey, conducted in 18 countries in Latin America, is another of a number of regional opinion ‘barometer’ surveys. Other barometer surveys include the Afrobarometer, Asian Barometer, AsiaBarometer and Arab Barometer. The last round of the Afrobarometer, round 4 in 2008, included 19 African countries. The Asian Barometer Survey brings together research teams from 13 East Asian and 5 South Asian countries. East, Southeast, South and Central Asia are covered in the AsiaBarometer. Arab Barometer coverage is about to double and expand to 10-11 countries in its second phase.

The Arab Barometer is part of the Globalbarometer network, alongside the Asian Barometer, Afrobarometer, and LatinobarĂ³metro. Next to join the network is the Caribbean region once surveys get off the ground in that area.

The European Social Survey (ESS), a biennial multi-country survey covering over 30 nations, contains the answers to the following crime-related statement: ‘It is important to her/him that the government ensures her/his safety against all threats. She/he wants the state to be strong so it can defend its citizens.’ There is no change in the overall proportion of people agreeing with this statement in 2006 compared to 2002. A clear majority of about 87 per cent supports the idea of a strong government ensuring safety for its citizens in both years, although there are small differences between the surveys one and three within countries (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Important that government ensures safety against all threats, agreement 2006 compared to 2002

Government ensures safety
Data source: ESS 2002 and 2006, limited to countries for which data are available on this question in both surveys

Examples of other international datasets in our data catalogue containing information on victimisation and its consequences and safety in the community in several countries are:

  • ‘Young Lives: an International Study of Childhood Poverty: Rounds 1 and 2, 2002-2006’ covering Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam
  • ‘Wellbeing in Developing Countries: Community Profiles, 2003-2006’ with a focus on Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Thailand

Examples of other international data sources:

  • ‘International Crime Victim Surveys’ (ICVS), a programme of standardised sample surveys to look at householders’ experience of crime, policing, crime prevention and fear of crime across a large number of countries. It covers data from over 150 surveys done in more than 80 countries over a period of 16 years. The integrated ICVS database (1989-2005) can be downloaded from DANS, the data archive of the Dutch Scientific Council (NWO).
  • ‘European Survey on Crime and Safety’ (EU ICS). The project follows on from the International Crime Victim Surveys (ICVS) and addresses new needs for European comparative data for policy-makers. The 16 surveys from EU ICS are not included in the integrated ICVS database. They can be obtained from Gallup Europe at www.europeansafetyobservatory.eu.

The information from the different datasets builds a picture of attitudes towards (inter-)governmental control of crime. It should be borne in mind that the term ‘crime’ subsumes many different types of crime. Because of the specific nature of the above illustrated investigation, not all variables related to ‘crime’ conducted in each of the surveys have been mentioned.

Much more information is available. In addition to the wording of the questions, the survey year should also be controlled for to ensure comparability. The data are not all available for the same year which enables only a partial combination of different pieces of information on one particular subject. In most cases, the research question, years and countries of research interest will determine the choice of international datasets.

Finding international data sources on ‘crime’

There are different ways to search for data on crime on the UK Data Service web pages. The main routes are as follows:

Search our Data Catalogue which has filters on:

  • Date
  • Topic
  • Data type
  • Access
  • Country

Key data – cross-national surveys

Crime and social control theme pages

Data access

International microdata can either be downloaded from the UK Data Service website or obtained from other archives outside the UK. ISSP and Eurobarometer data, for example, are stored in the ‘Zentralarchiv’ (ZA) in Cologne, Germany, and accessible via its ZACAT service. A large selection of Eurobarometer Survey Series datasets, including standard Eurobarometers, Central and Eastern Eurobarometers and Candidate Countries Eurobarometers, are available to browse, analyse and download online.  Data can also be obtained via the UK Data Archive by placing an order. For other datasets, such as the European Social Survey (ESS), users will be required to register with other archives (in this case Norwegian Social Science Data Service) in order to access the data.

Whatever the requirements are, they can be found outlined in the Discover record for each study. Moreover, a series of study specific user guides are in place to direct users through the entire process.

Further information on the datasets referred to in this case study