Feasibility Study on Crime Comparisons Between Canada and the United States - ARCHIVED

A comparison of crime rates between Canada and the United States is often sought by the media, researchers, and policy makers. Recognizing this demand, along with the methodological complexities, the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics has undertaken the task of assessing the feasibility of comparing police reported statistics between these two countries. This report compares and contrasts the specific offence definitions, classification, and scoring rules of the Canadian and American Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) surveys. Offences are organized according to the type of survey (aggregate versus incident based) and level of analysis (incident level and accused level). Where applicable, the discussion notes modifications that could allow for reliable cross-national comparisons. The report also briefly discusses the potential of comparing detailed offence characteristics.