An empirical study of the effect of different statistical rules
An examination of the effects of different statistical methods on crime statistics.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet — Brå) has the task of producing the official statistics for the Swedish justice system in a way that allows for the conduct of cross-national comparisons.
The objective is to improve existing knowledge in the area of crime level comparisons in order to study whether there are offence types covered by the official statistics that provide a suitable basis for cross-national comparisons. The focus is directed specifically at comparisons of crime levels since cross-national comparisons of trends have generally been viewed as less problematic. There is relatively good information available as to which statistical methods are employed in different countries. Knowledge is lacking, however, as to the significance of methodological differences for the crime statistics produced. The current study primarily takes the form of an examination of the effects of different statistical methods on crime statistics.