Criminometric Results on Causes and Consequences of Crime in Europe

Abstract

Before turning to the empirical results, a discussion about the availability of adequate data is appropriate. As crimes are committed by individuals, it would be obvious to carry out empirical investigations at exactly this level. However, collecting individual crime data of a suitable quantity is very expensive, and its reliability is still questionable, as it is based on the self-reporting of potential criminals. On the other hand, with social disorganisation theory (see Section 3.2.1), there also exists a major criminological theory that suggests the use of disaggregated macro levels (e.g. neighbourhoods, communities etc.) for investigating criminality. Thus, performing the subsequent analysis by means of disaggregated macro data is more than only a second-best solution.