DEVELOPMENT
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2.6<br />
Crime and the population’s sense of security<br />
Jüri Saar<br />
Controlling crime should be viewed as defending the<br />
fundamental values of a society. Being focused directly<br />
on criminal behaviour, both a secure social and a certain<br />
cultural environment is reproduced, while social capital is<br />
also being created. The civilising process is expressed in<br />
both the particularities of crime, as well as in the methods<br />
for controlling crime: “today we may be living in the<br />
most peaceable era in our species’ existence”(see Pinker<br />
2011, xix). The deepening, even fundamental, opposition<br />
to violence as a means of achieving goals is one of the<br />
“landmarks” of human development over long stretches<br />
of time. Below, we examine Estonia’s situation and the<br />
trends that have been expressed on three indicators that<br />
are usually used in the international comparisons of the<br />
level and control of crime. These are the homicide rate,<br />
the prison rate, and the population’s sense of security.<br />
2.6.1<br />
Homicides<br />
Despite the variations of the definitions of homicides in<br />
various jurisdictions, 1 this crime category has become<br />
the indicator that is compared by country – homicides<br />
per 100,000 inhabitants. The data for intentional homicides<br />
are characterised by a relatively small dependency<br />
on lawmaking, a low level of statistical manipulation by<br />
the states, a low rate of registration latency, and a high<br />
clearance rate. Therefore, comparing crime in different<br />
states by using intentional homicide statistics has become<br />
the tradition in criminology. The level of homicides has<br />
become the indicator in the most general social sciences<br />
approaches, where this crime category is used to assess<br />
the criminal situation and level of security, as well as to<br />
characterise human development. In a complex way, the<br />
frequency of intentional homicides is an expression of the<br />
violence in human relations, thereby reflecting the “symbolic<br />
value” of human life.<br />
The UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and<br />
Crime) and WHO (World Health Organization) have the<br />
longest traditions in the collection and analysis of intentional<br />
homicide data. The UN relies on law enforcement<br />
(crime) statistics; the WHO relies on statistics related to<br />
the victims of violent crime. In addition, several regional/<br />
international organisations collect data on intentional<br />
homicides (e.g. Eurostat, UNICEF, and Interpol). When<br />
assessing the level of intentional homicides, sometimes,<br />
various indicators are combined in order to get a more<br />
complete picture. Since the principles for compiling<br />
statistics differ, the specific numbers may vary. In some<br />
Table 2.6.1<br />
Number of intentional homicides and rate per 100,000<br />
inhabitants in Estonia, 1991–2012<br />
Year<br />
Number of<br />
homicides and<br />
attempted<br />
homicides<br />
Per 100.000<br />
inhabitants<br />
Number of<br />
victims*<br />
1991 136 8.7 170<br />
1992 239 15.6 302<br />
1993 327 21.9 389<br />
1994 365 25.0 426<br />
1995 304 21.2 328<br />
1996 268 18.9 293<br />
1997 247 17.6 237<br />
1998 248 17.9 267<br />
1999 200 14.5 227<br />
2000 189 13.8 190<br />
2001 137 10.8 207<br />
2002 155 11.4 159<br />
2003 188 13.9 148<br />
2004 127 9.4 109<br />
2005 156 11.6 123<br />
2006 119 8.8 99<br />
2007 110 8.2 95<br />
2008 104 7.8 91<br />
2009 95 7.0 82<br />
2010 84 6.3 64<br />
2011 100 7.5 65<br />
2012 80 6.0 57<br />
Source: Police Board, since 2003, the Ministry of Justice. Statistics<br />
Estonia<br />
countries, there are great differences between healthcare<br />
data and crime data related to homicides.<br />
According to UN statistics, the number of homicide<br />
victims in the entire world was about 490,000 people in<br />
2004, which made the average indicator 7.6 homicides per<br />
100,000 inhabitants (Geneva Declaration 2009). The level<br />
of homicides in Europe, Asia and North America are persistently<br />
relatively low, based on both the health statistics<br />
and criminal justice statistics. Central and South America,<br />
the Caribbean area, and South Africa are charac terised<br />
by higher rates. The corresponding indicators in these<br />
areas exceed the ones in Western Europe by 7 to 40 times<br />
(Malby 2009).<br />
1 In some states, for example, “killings of honour” are treated differently than other intentional homicides; in Finland, for instance, homicides<br />
that occur in the course of fights are not considered to be intentional homicides.<br />
86<br />
Estonian Human Development Report 2012/2013