Abstract

The World Countries Homicide rate dataset comprises information on the numbers of deaths classified as homicide per 100.000 inhabitants per each country for the period 1800-2000. Data has been gathered and organized in 1-year intervals, using as geographical reference the current list of existing world countries

Author(s)

Jonathan Fink-Jensen

Production date

2-6-2015

Variable(s)

Homicide rates

Keywords

Institutions, homicide rate, world countries

Time period

1800-2000

Geographical coverage

Entire World

Methodologies used for data collection and processing

This dataset is a slightly revised version of the one produced by Winny Bierman and Jan Luiten van Zanden in April 2014. Most of the added data in this version has been found in statistical yearbooks, either from individual countries themselves or from the World Health Organziation and the United Nations (see legend in the worksheet). Some remarks should be made on data for the following countries and years: * Poland: + 1929-1931; 1937: homicide rate covers only cities with >100.000 inhabitants + 1932-1936: rate of people sentenced with homicide * Switzerland: + Eisner: period 1800-1874 covers only the Canton of Zurich * Italy: + Eisner: 1800-1869 excludes estimates from Sardinia, these figures are treated separately in Eisners paper. * Brazil + 1944: rate covers only 21 cities * Iran + 1979: rate covers only cities * Japan + 1911-1936: rate of persons sentenced with homicide * Israel + 1948: only Jewish population * Turkey: + 1940-1948: rate of people sentenced with homicide + 1960-1972 including operations of war * South Africa + 1938-1947: only European population

Period of collection

April 2015

Data collectors

Jonathan Fink-Jensen


i. Central statistical agencies ii. Historical reconstructions iii. Estimates iv. Conjectures

General references

Baten, J. and Fourie J. (2014): "Numeracy of Africans, Asians, and Europeans during the Early Modern Period: New Evidence from Cape Colony Court Registers", University of Tuebingen: Working Paper.

Brazil. Ministério do Império (198-?), "Relatórios ministeriais, `Epoca do Império, 1832-1888", Rio de Janeiro: MEC-SEAC, Biblioteca Nacional, Serviço de Reprografia [microform].

British Colonial Reports (`Blue books') of Gambia and Ghana.

Central Statistical Office, Concise Statistical Yearbook of Poland, Editions 1931-1937.

Dunn, Halbert L. (1947), Summary of international vital statistics 1937-1944 (Washington).

Eisner, M., (2003), `Long-Term Historical Trends in Violent Crime', Crime and Justice 30, 83-142.

Eisner, M., (2014), `From Swords to Words: Does Micro-Level Change in Self-Control Predict Long-Term Variation in Levels of Homicide?', Crime and Justice 43, 65-134.

General Directory of Statistics (1947), Small Statistical Abstract of Turkey, 1942-1946 (Ankara).

Historical Violence Database (see: http://cjrc.osu.edu/research/interdisciplinary/hvd).

Hungarian Central Statistical Office (1992), Time series of historical statistics 1867-1992. Volume 1: Population - vital statistics (Budapest).

Lehti, M. (2013) NRILP Comparative Homicide Time Series (NRILP-CHTS), National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Research Brief 32/2013, Helsinki.

NRILP Comparative Homicide Time Series (version 10-4-2014), National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Helsinki (see: http://www.optula.om.fi/material/attachments/optula/julkaisut/verkkokatsauksia-sarja/u71dE0AwR/kansainvalinen_henkirikollisuus_32_eng.pdf).

Société des Nations Organisation D'Hygiène (1927), Série de Manuels de Statistique: No 8, Les Statistiques Démographiques officielles de la République Tchécoslovaque (Genève).

Statistical Yearbook of Turkey, Editions 1952, 1960, 1968, 1973.

Statistics Bureau Japan (1988), Historical Statistics of Japan, vol. 1.5, Tokyo: Statistics Bureau.

Statistički godišnjak Jugoslavije (1973).

Tanner, R. (1970), Homicide in Uganda 1964, Teaneck: Holmes and Meier.

UN Statistics Division (1951), Demographic Yearbook, New York: United Nations.

UN Statistics Division (1955), Demographic Yearbook, New York: United Nations.

UN Statistics Division (online), Data serie: UNODC Homicide Statistics 2012 (see: http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?q=homicide&d=UNODC&f=tableCode%3a1).

World Health Organization, World Health Statistics Annual, Editions 1951, 1968, 1976, 1981-1983, 1992.

Caribbean

Anguilla[No Data]

Antigua and Barbuda1500 (5)-2013 (21)

Aruba[No Data]

Bahamas1500 (5)-2013 (23)

Barbados1500 (5)-2016 (28)

Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba[No Data]

British Virgin Islands[No Data]

Cayman Islands[No Data]

Cuba1500 (8)-2016 (35)

Curaçao[No Data]

Dominica1500 (5)-2016 (21)

Dominican Republic1500 (6)-2018 (38)

Grenada1500 (5)-2013 (21)

Guadeloupe[No Data]

Haiti1500 (6)-2018 (36)

Jamaica1500 (6)-2018 (35)

Martinique[No Data]

Montserrat[No Data]

In 2010, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) awarded a subsidy to the Clio Infra project, of which Jan Luiten van Zanden was the main applicant and which is hosted by the International Institute of Social History (IISH). Clio Infra has set up a number of interconnected databases containing worldwide data on social, economic, and institutional indicators for the past five centuries, with special attention to the past 200 years. These indicators allow research into long-term development of worldwide economic growth and inequality.

Global inequality is one of the key problems of the contemporary world. Some countries have (recently) become wealthy, other countries have remained poor. New theoretical developments in economics - such as new institutional economics, new economic geography, and new growth theory - and the rise of global economic and social history require such processes to be studied on a worldwide scale. Clio Infra provides datasets for the most important indicators. Economic and social historians from around the world have been working together in thematic collaboratories, in order to collect and share their knowledge concerning the relevant indicators of economic performance and its causes. The collected data have been standardized, harmonized, and stored for future use. New indicators to study inequality have been developed. The datasets are accessible through the Clio Infra portal which also offers possibilities for visualization of the data. Clio Infra offers the opportunity to greatly enhance our understanding of the origins, causes and character of the process of global inequality.