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EAST IS EAST, AND WEST IS WEST
Table 4 Victimisation by common crime, homicide rates and scores on an index for
organised crime/corruption worldwide, in Europe and four European regions!"
Common crime Homicide Organized crime/corruption
Europe 15,4 2,2 43,7
Northern Europe 15 2,4 26,8
Western Europe 16,4 0,9 24,9
Eastern Europe 14,9 3,9 63,6
Southern Europe 15,3 1,6 59,4
World 21,1 6,1 47,8
Table 4 shows that the European level of common crime lies somewhat below the
global mean. The global homicide rate is three times higher than the European
mean. The European mean score on the index for organised crime/corruption is
close to the global mean. The mean scores of Eastern and Southern Europe lie
above the global mean.
DISCUSSION
The results on victimisation by common crime and homicide indicate a fairly
uniform pattern for Europe with modest decreases in all regions. Due to relatively
large falls in Eastern Europe existing variation in these types of crime have been
reduced. From a global perspective, the European means are unremarkable. It goes
beyond the scope of this paper to aim at a comprehensive interpretation of these
results. Two factors are likely to have driven the European downward trends and
further harmonization: increased socio-economic growth and integration and
improvements in both private and public security measures."
As said, the results on organised crime/corruption present a different picture.
Globally, the mean score of Europe is closer to the world average than for the
other forms of criminality. In this domain no downward trend can be observed
in Europe and neither are there any signs of convergence between the Northern
and Western countries and those in the South and East. According to our
analysis of the global data, the most powerful driver of levels of organised crime/
8 Van Dijk et al., Global crime pattern.
1° Jan Van Dijk — Andromachi Tseloni — Graham Farrell (eds.), The International Crime Drop:
new directions in research, London, Palgrave MacMillan, 2012.
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