28. SAFETY: REPORTED MURDERS

The number of murders per inhabitant is an indicator of a region’s safety level. Unlike other safety indica- Definition tors, such as reported property crime, the number of reported murders is not affected by the public propen- Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being sity to report an offence. It is therefore more suitable with malice aforethought, more explicitly inten- for international comparisons. tional murder. Reported murders are the number Turkey and the United States had the highest murder of murders reported to the police. The murder rate in 2005 (both at 5.6 murders per 100 000 inhabitants) rate is the number of reported murders per (Figure 28.1). On the other side Austria and Norway were 100 000 inhabitants. the countries with the lowest rates (below 0.7 murders per 100 000 inhabitants). France, Australia, the United States and Italy show the greatest regional variation in the country murder rate Source average (Figure 28.2). For all these countries this large OECD Regional Database, http://dotstat/wbos/, theme: variation is due to an outlier region with a very high Regional Statistics. rate. In France the Corse region had a rate over six See Annex B for data sources and country related times the country average. In Australia, the Northern metadata. Territories, and in the United States, Washington DC, have murder rates four times higher than the country National Data: UN, Ninth UN Survey of Crime Trends average. In Italy, the outlier region is Calabria. Spain, and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems and Eurostat. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Japan also have a single region with a murder rate higher than the the other regions. Reference years and territorial level Small regional variation is seen in New Zealand, 2005; TL2 Portugal and Ireland. Few countries had one or more United Kingdom 2004. regions with no murders in 2005: Italy (Valle d’Aosta), Canada (Prince Edward Island and Northwest No regional data available for Belgium, Germany, Territories) and Finland (Aland). Korea and Iceland. Figure notes

Figure 28.1: Available data: France and Korea, 2004.

28.1 Murders per 100 000 inhabitants, 28.2 Range in TL2 regional murders 2005 per 100 000 inhabitants, 2005 In 2005, murder rates were the highest Regional variation in the murder rate is greatest in Turkey and the US. in France and Australia.

Turkey 5.6 France Corse 5.6 United States Australia Northern Terr. Finland 2.2 United States Washington DC Korea 2.2 Canada 2.1 Italy Calabria Slovak republic 2.0 Spain Cantabria Belgium 1.7 Canada Hungary 1.6 Sweden Oevre Norrland France 1.6 Norway Nord-Norge Ireland 1.6 Mexico New Zealand 1.5 Etela-Suomi United Kingdom 1.5 Finland Australia 1.5 Japan Okinawa Poland 1.5 Austria Denmark 1.3 Czech Republic Portugal 1.3 Netherlands Netherlands 1.2 Poland Spain 1.2 United Kingdom Greece 1.1 Italy 1.1 Denmark Japan 1.1 Greece Czech Republic 1.0 Hungary Iceland 1.0 Slovak Rep. Switzerland 1.0 Turkey Germany 1.0 Switzerland Sweden 0.9 Luxembourg 0.9 Ireland Norway 0.7 Portugal Austria 0.7 New Zealand 0123456 01234567 1 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/524327524153

150 OECD REGIONS AT A GLANCE 2009 – ISBN 978-92-64-05582-7 – © OECD 2009 28. SAFETY: REPORTED MURDERS

28.3 Murders per 100 000 inhabitants: Asia and Oceania TL2 regions, 2005

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OECD REGIONS AT A GLANCE 2009 – ISBN 978-92-64-05582-7 – © OECD 2009 151 28. SAFETY: REPORTED MURDERS

28.4 Murders per 100 000 inhabitants: Europe TL2 regions, 2005

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152 OECD REGIONS AT A GLANCE 2009 – ISBN 978-92-64-05582-7 – © OECD 2009 28. SAFETY: REPORTED MURDERS

28.5 Murders per 100 000 inhabitants: North America TL2 regions, 2005

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OECD REGIONS AT A GLANCE 2009 – ISBN 978-92-64-05582-7 – © OECD 2009 153 From: OECD Regions at a Glance 2009

Access the complete publication at: https://doi.org/10.1787/reg_glance-2009-en

Please cite this chapter as:

OECD (2009), “Safety: Reported murders”, in OECD Regions at a Glance 2009, OECD Publishing, Paris.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1787/reg_glance-2009-32-en

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