Self-Reported Crime and Deviance Studies in Europe: Current State of Knowledge and Review of Usa

Self-reported crime and deviance surveys are today one of the major ways to measure and study some specific types of crime and deviance as juvenile delinquency, school violence and substance use. Still, across European countries, they are carried out and put to use in a variety of ways. This is why it is important to compare practices across some major European countries so as to map the situation and identify the good – as well as the bad – practices. Lieven Pauwels and Stefaan Pleysier have taken stock of research and practice in Belgium and the Netherlands, Janne Kivivuori in Finland, Cécile Carra in France, Thomas Görgen and Susann Rabold in Germany, Susan McVie in Great Britain and Ireland, Simona Traverso, Giada Cartocchi and Giovanni Battista Traverso in Italy, finally Lina Andersson in Sweden. The synthesis for all these countries has been drawn by Marcelo F. Aebi. The volume was coordinated by Renée Zauberman. This European comparison will be useful for public policies decision makers at various governmental levels (European, national, regional, local), for crime prevention NGOs, for journalists, and for academics, researchers, students as well. This comparison was carried out in one of the work packages of a Coordination Action (CRIMPREV, see http://www.crimprev.eu) funded by the European Commission (under FP6) under the leadership of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS, Groupe européen de recherches sur les normativités – GERN). This work package (coordinated by Philippe Robert and Renée Zauberman) includes three more European overviews : on victimisation and insecurity surveys (a previous volume in this series), on the comparison between overall population crime surveys and public criminal statistics, and finally on evaluative research of safety policies (to be published)