Measuring Transnational Crime

To understand the nature and dimensions of transnational crime, one needs to know many facts about crime. The answer to most questions about transnational crime requires aggregated data on specific related crime variables. However, there are clearly complexities and pitfalls inherent in these efforts.

The measurement of crime, which is difficult enough on the national level, is far more challenging in a transnational context. Among the host of obstacles to measuring transnational crime are the lack of crime-reporting consistency and the variability present within definitions of what constitutes crime, as well as what specific criteria are used to define particular crimes, which are neither self-evident nor universal. The measuring of murder on a transnational scale, for instance, is rife with complex difficulties. These include culture-specific ideas ...