Editing Crime statistics (section)

== Methods ==
There are several methods for the measuring of crime. Public surveys are occasionally conducted to estimate the amount of crime that has not been reported to police. Such surveys are usually more reliable for assessing trends. However, they also have their limitations and generally don't procure statistics useful for local crime prevention, often ignore offenses against children and do not count offenders brought before the criminal justice system.

Law enforcement agencies in some countries offer compilations of statistics for various types of crime.

Two major methods for collecting crime data are law enforcement reports, which only reflect crimes that are reported, recorded, and not subsequently canceled; and [[victim study]] (victimization [[statistical survey]]s), which rely on individual memory and honesty. For less frequent crimes such as intentional homicide and armed robbery, reported incidents are generally more reliable, but suffer from [[Under-reporting#Crime|under-recording]]; for example, [[no criming]] in the United Kingdom sees over one third of reported violent crimes being not recorded by the police.<ref name="hmic-victims">{{Cite web|url=https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/news/news-feed/victims-let-down-by-poor-crime-recording/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304145307/http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/news/news-feed/victims-let-down-by-poor-crime-recording/|title=Victims let down by poor crime-recording|archivedate=March 4, 2016|website=His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) – Home}}</ref> Because laws and practices vary between jurisdictions, comparing crime statistics between and even within countries can be difficult: typically only violent deaths (homicide or manslaughter) can reliably be compared, due to consistent and high reporting and relative clear definition.

The U.S. has two major data collection programs, the [[Uniform Crime Reports]] from the FBI and the [[National Crime Victimization Survey]] from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. However, the U.S. has no comprehensive infrastructure to monitor crime trends and report the information to related parties such as law enforcement.<ref name=NRCUnderstanding>{{cite book |work=Committee on Understanding Crime Trends, [[U.S. National Research Council]] |year=2008 |title=Understanding Crime Trends: Workshop Report |publisher=National Academies Press |doi=10.17226/12472 |isbn=978-0-309-12586-4 |url=http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12472#toc |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219193853/http://nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12472#toc |archive-date=2009-02-19 }}</ref><ref>https://wynnfieldmobile.com/mobile-makes-list-of-deadliest-us-cities/</ref><ref>https://wynnfieldmobile.com/mobile-had-highest-violent-crime-rate-among-cities-reported-in-2021-fbi/</ref>

Research using a series of victim surveys in 18 countries of the [[European Union]], funded by the [[European Commission]], has reported (2005) that the level of crime in Europe has fallen back to the levels of 1990, and notes that levels of common crime have shown declining trends in the U.S., Canada, Australia and other industrialized countries as well. The European researchers say a general consensus identifies demographic change as the leading cause for this international trend. Although homicide and robbery rates rose in the U.S. in the 1980s, by the end of the century they had declined by 40%.<ref name=NRCUnderstanding/>

However, the European research suggests that "increased use of [[crime prevention]] measures may indeed be the common factor behind the near universal decrease in overall levels of crime in the Western world", since decreases have been most pronounced in property crime and less so, if at all, in contact crimes.<ref>{{cite book |author=Van Dijk, J. J. M., van Kesteren, J. N. & Smit, P. |year=2008 |title=Criminal Victimisation in International Perspective, Key findings from the 2004-2005 ICVS and EU ICS |location=The Hague |publisher=Boom Legal Publishers |url=http://english.wodc.nl/images/ob257_full%20text_tcm45-103353.pdf |access-date=June 27, 2013 |pages=99–104 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120065651/http://english.wodc.nl/images/ob257_full%20text_tcm45-103353.pdf |archive-date=January 20, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Van Dijk, J. J. M. |author2=Manchin, R. |author3=Van Kesteren, J. |author4=Nevala, S. |author5=Hideg, G. |year=2005 |title=The Burden of Crime in the EU. Research Report: A Comparative Analysis of the European Crime and Safety Survey (EU ICS) 2005 |url=http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/intervict/burdenofcrimefinal.pdf |access-date=May 5, 2008 |pages=21–23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221124606/http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/intervict/burdenofcrimefinal.pdf |archive-date=February 21, 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=Kesteren, J. N. van |author2=Mayhew, P. |author3=Nieuwbeerta, P. |year=2000 |title=Criminal victimization in seventeen industrialized countries: key findings from the 2000 International Crime Victims Survey |access-date=March 23, 2023 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47734799 |pages=98–99 }}</ref>