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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

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