Comparing Murder rates.

[Skull Pilot]

I have listened to people say that the UK has a much lower murder rate that the US.

Now that may be true but I have just discovered that the US and the UK report murders very differently.

It seems that in the US any death that is not of natural causes or suicide is counted as homicide.

But in the UK crimes are counted based on the outcome of the investigation and trial.

Here is an interesting bit from this source

House of Commons - Home Affairs - Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence

Homicide statistics too vary widely. In some developing countries, the statistics are known to be far from complete. Figures for crimes labelled as homicide in various countries are simply not comparable. Since 1967, homicide figures for England and Wales have been adjusted to exclude any cases which do not result in conviction, or where the person is not prosecuted on grounds of self defence or otherwise. .

So it seems we have an apples to orangutans comparison.

Please apply this caveat to your next argument citing crime statistics.

 

[Care4all]

I don't remember if the charts I have looked at on Murder rates stated Murder or stated Homicides....?

If they said it was our homicide rate then that would be one number, if they said Murder rates, then that would be another number....

Homicide would include deaths that were not MURDERS, and MURDERS....both numbers would be in a homicide rate, but in a Murder rate, that would be specifically for those homicides that were murder as well....right???

 

[Skull Pilot]

Technically the killing of one human by another is homicide.

the term is often used synonymously with murder which is how I used it.

Regardless of the word usage the UK only records crimes that result in a guilty verdict where in the US we do not require a verdict to count the crime.

 

[martybegan]

Technically the killing of one human by another is homicide.

the term is often used synonymously with murder which is how I used it.

Regardless of the word usage the UK only records crimes that result in a guilty verdict where in the US we do not require a verdict to count the crime.

Wondering what the conviction rate is, and do they backtrack the convicted murder to the year the murder occured.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Technically the killing of one human by another is homicide.

the term is often used synonymously with murder which is how I used it.

Regardless of the word usage the UK only records crimes that result in a guilty verdict where in the US we do not require a verdict to count the crime.

Wondering what the conviction rate is, and do they backtrack the convicted murder to the year the murder occured.

Interesting point.

I didn't see that in the source I cited but it was rather long