Please select three countries from the 2007 Transparency International
Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). It is located at
transparency.org/en/cpi/2019
.
There are 180 countries listed there. Pick one country ranked in the top one-third, one
country ranked in the bottom one-third, and one country in the middle of the scale.
For the selected three countries, find the crime rates for two crimes of your choice in
2019 from the official statistics available at
https://data.unodc.org
. Once you are on
the UN webpage, pick the category Violent and Sexual Crime and select rate per
100,000 population as the unit of measurement. Make sure that the data for these
three countries are available on
both
data sources. If not, then select other countries.
At the beginning of your report, please write down the names of the three
countries, their CPI rankings, and official crime rates (per 100,000) for both crimes,
as well as the names of crime types. In your report, you will need to address several
questions:
1)
Do official crime rates differ across the three countries for the two crimes you
selected? (Hint: we are assuming that they do, so do not spend a lot of time on
this question and move to question 2).
2)
If they do, what would be alternative argumentsbeyond the differences in
the crime levels themselvesthat can be used to explain these differences?
Please list and explain at least 5 reasons (Hint: its useful to provide 6 or 7
reasons to be sure that you have 5 correct ones).
For each reason, state clearly the argument (e.g., definitions of crime differ
across countries) and then apply it to your countries and crimes (e.g., Egypt has a
much narrower definition of rape than Croatia). Then, explain why you think that
this is the case (e.g., while the Croatian laws recognize that the victim of rape can be
either female and male, Egypt excludes men as victims of rape and recognizes only
women as victims. Similarly, marital rape is excluded from the definition of rape in
Egypt, but it is included in the definition of rape in Croatia) and how it is affecting the
crime rate (e.g., In addition to the differences in the actual level of rape, we would
expect that the official rate of rape would be much lower in Egypt than in Croatia
because Egypts definition of rape is narrower than the Croatian as it excludes men as
victims and marital rape).
As you write your reasons, you do not need to compare across all 3 countries
for all reasons. Each of your reasons can include a comparison across only 2 countries,
but they do not need to be the same 2 countries across all 5 reasons (e.g., Country 1
and Country 2 in reason #1; Country 2 and Country 3 in reason #2). Similarly, it is
easier to articulate the arguments if each reason focuses on only one crime (e.g., rape).
You can use the other crime in your explanation of the next reason (e.g., crime 1 in
reason #1; crime 2 in reason #3).
While it is OK to do some basic internet search about these countries, please do
not spend a lot of time doing so. This is not an assignment about the internet search or
library search; rather, the purpose of the assignment is for you to apply your
knowledge about factors other than the crime rates that would explain differences in
the level of crime.
The brainstorming activity that you have conducted with classmates is very
similar in nature to this short assignment. Now, you need to be specific about the
reasons why these countries (e.g., USA, Nigeria, and Argentina) differ in their specific
crimes (e.g., rape, burglary) rate per 100,000.
If you need a hint, look at the last
section of the handout for this unit on crime measurement and apply these ideas to
your specific countries and specific crimes. Please keep in mind that these are official
data and, hence, any explanation related to the alternative data sources may not be
applicable.
Please upload your essay on D2L (look for the folder Short Assignments).