The previous section argued that South East Europe should not suffer from high levels of crime, based on the socioeconomic correlates of crime. This section sug-gests that, in fact, South East Europe does not suffer from high levels of crime, at least not in terms of the conventional crime statistics or the available survey data. This simple fact is often omitted from discussions of crime in the region.
Many forms of crime are not captured in the convention-al crime statistics. Detection of most kinds of organised crime, for example, is almost entirely reliant on the proac-tive work of the police. The extent of organised crime in the region, its causes, and its links to corruption, are all topics discussed in subsequent sections of this report.
But it appears that in terms of conventional crime (such as murder, assault, rape, domestic violence, robbery, theft, etc.), South East Europe is relatively safe.
The measurement of crime is controversial. The number of crimes reported to the police do not give an accurate representation of the level of crime in a society. There are many reasons people do not report crime to the po-lice, one of the most important being that it is simply not worth the effort given the results expected. As a result, many forms of property crime, such as the theft of un-insured items, are highly underreported, as victims are rarely able to identify the perpetrator and hold little hope of recovering their goods. Since high levels of crime tend to erode confidence in the police, levels of report-ing should be lowest in precisely those countries where the problem is worst. Consequently, the highest total re-corded crime rates in the world are generally in highly developed countries known for their safety, where
peo-ple report even relatively minor incidents due to a sense of civic duty and high rates of insurance coverage.
There is one form of crime, however, that almost always comes to the attention of the police: homicide. There are many reasons for this. The death of a person is an event of considerable legal importance, involving a range of administrative actors, from insurance agents to welfare officials to those in charge of the hygienic disposal of bodies. For many of these interests, the cause of death is important. Dying people are often given medical atten-tion, and medical professionals draw conclusions on the cause of death. When these are suspect, such as bullet wounds, these concerns are registered. Surviving family members may demand attention for these cases. Based on these combined inputs, most suspected murders are registered as such, although there may be some under-count in under-countries where state control over territory is limited or where strong cultural or political factors favour concealing violent deaths.
In contrast, non-lethal violence is generally highly under-reported. Domestic violence, drunken brawls, gang skir-mishes – unless the wounds require immediate medical attention and cannot be passed off as accidental, most of these forms of assault go undetected. As a result, the homicide figures provide the best single indicator of the violent crime situation in a country.
But even murder figures can be misleading when used for cross-national comparison. Definitions of crime vary greatly between countries. Even for what seems like an easily defined offence, such as murder, definitions vary widely. Murder is a crime of intent, and the determination
of intent is a matter of judgement, not fact. Killings per-formed in self-defence or the defence of others (includ-ing most kill(includ-ings by police) are not registered as mur-ders. Killings that occur by accident vary in culpability depending on the degree of negligence of the perpetra-tor – freak accidents are less blameworthy than acts of wanton recklessness. In many jurisdictions, attempted murder is considered equal to the completed act; the would-be killer should not be treated differently simply because he failed to do what he intended. The way these intent issues are understood varies substantially between jurisdictions.
The UNODC attempts to overcome some of these diffi-culties through its periodic crime trends surveys, or CTS.
A questionnaire is sent to all United Nations Member States giving standardised definitions of each crime type and asking the respondents to fit their crime figures into the appropriate categories. This is a difficult exercise, but it does provide a better basis for comparison than the fig-ures published by the national police forces. Many coun-tries respond to the survey sporadically, and much of the data are somewhat dated. Still, the standardised homicide figures are the single best comparative indicator available for gauging the severity of national crime problems.
Murder
A quick look at the most recent European murder figures reported in the CTS show that while some countries in South East Europe are more violent than the Western European norm, many are not, and their murder rates are by far the lowest in Eastern Europe. Moldova had
the highest rate in the region in 2002, but it is the lowest of the European former Soviet Socialist Republics for which data are available. Albania’s 2002 murder rate of six per 100,000 was about the same as the United States at the time. Among the less violent countries in the re-gion, Croatia has a lower murder rate than the United Kingdom. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia had less homicide per capita than Portugal or Sweden.
Romania was safer than Finland or Switzerland.
Standardised definitions are also applied by the compil-ers of the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics.51 Similarly to the CTS figures, these sta-tistics show most have murder rates at or below the Euro-pean average. In addition, Bulgaria, which scored above average in the CTS standings based on dated data, shows a consistent decline in recent years. Only Albania stands out as having a relatively high murder rate.52 Another source of standardised murder figures are the public health statistics, as compiled by the World Health Organization. These figures support the contention that homicide levels are not high in the region. For the bulk of the countries, they are slightly higher than in most West-ern European countries, but significantly lower than in Eastern European countries. The figures also suggest that countries not available in the CTS data set (Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina) are similar in their levels of homicide to the other countries of the former Yugoslavia. As in the European Sourcebook fig-ures, limited time series data suggest rates of murder in Bulgaria are in decline.
So, based on at least three independent standardised data sources, it seems that murder rates, the single Police recorded rates of murder per 100,000 citizens
Figure 25:
Source: UNODC CTS 2004 or most recent available CTS data 0.8 0.8 1.8 1.8 2.0 2.0 2.3 2.5 2.5 2.9 4.1
5.7
8.0 8.4 8.9 9.2 10.0 10.4 19.9
-5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0
Greece Austria Croatia Slovenia Hungary United Kingdom FYR Macedonia Romania West Europe average Switzerland Bulgaria Albania Moldova Lithuania Ukraine Latvia Belarus Estonia Russian Federation
The Balkans do not have a conventional crime problem
most reliable crime indicator, are relatively low in South East Europe. In addition, limited time series information within these data sets also suggest that the situation may be getting better. For time series analysis, though, we have an additional data source: the police statistics of the national governments of this region.
While comparing non-standardised national police data can be misleading, they are very useful for discussing trends within countries, so long as the legal definitions of crime and data collection methods do not change over time. Absent evidence that officials are increasingly ma-nipulating the data, trends in the police homicide figures should reflect real trends in the incidence of murder. In all of the countries in South East Europe for which ex-tended time series data are available (Moldova, Albania, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia – comprising most of the population of the region), homicide has been in decline in recent years.
Moldova
Moldova’s murder statistics are the worst in South East Europe, according to all standardised sources. But these are based on figures from the early 2000s, and, accord-ing to the national statistics, there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of murders since that time, from 413 murders in 2000 to 268 in 2005. Even taking into account Moldova’s shrinking population, this translates into a sharp reduction in the murder rate.
Albania
The murder rates cited for Albania in both the criminal
justice and public health data discussed above refer to data at least five years old. In the years that have passed, according to the Albanian Ministry of Public Order, things have improved considerably. According to the official statistics, murder rates declined by two thirds between 2001 and 2006, from six per 100,000 to two per 100,000. The number of murders committed in Albania in 2006 is only 5% of what it was after the collapse of government in 1997.
Concerns have been expressed about possible under-recording of crime in Albania. According to the 2007 Public health rates of murder per 100,000 citizens
Figure 26:
Source: WHO 2002
Intentional homicide per 100,000 in Figure 27:
Moldova 1998-2005
Source: Elaborated from data of the Bureau of National Statistics Moldova53
1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 5 6
11 12 13 13 15 15 33
72
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Germany Slovenia Austria UK Italy Greece Serbia & Montenegro Croatia Bosnia & Herzegovina Hungary Bulgaria FYR Macedonia Turkey Romania USA Albania Lithuania Moldova Latvia Belarus Estonia Ukraine Russian Fed Colombia
9.8 9.1
7.8
6.9 9.1
9.5 10.1 10.0
6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0 10.5
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Progress Report by the European Commission, “Po-lice capacity for… accurately recording crime remains weak.”55 But even if only half or a third of the murders were being captured, the overall murder rate would still be low. And unless the share of un-recorded murders is increasing, the downward trend would be the same.
Croatia
According to Croatian police statistics, murder in that country has been in decline over the last nine years, starting from a very low base. If the national police
fig-ures were comparable to the standardised figfig-ures, the murder rate in Croatia would be currently about one third of the European average, close to that of Japan. In 2006, the police recorded just 68 murders, in a country of some 4.5 million people.56
Romania
Romania’s murder rate has not been high in the last 15 years and appears to be in a general decline. Since 1998, it has settled at a level that, on its face, appears to be about average for Europe.
Albanian murder rates 1992-2006 Figure 28:
Source: Elaborated from the Albanian Institute of Statistics and the Albanian Ministry of Public Order54
Croatian murder rate Figure 29:
Source: Elaborated from data of the Ministry of the Interior of Croatia57
Intentional homicides per 100,000 in Figure 30:
Romania, 1990-2004
Elaborated from data of the Romanian National Institute of Statistics58
Intentional homicide per 100,000 in Figure 31:
Bulgaria 1985-2006
Source: Elaborated from data provided by the Institute for the Study of Democracy 7
1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005
1.0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
2.4
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004
2.7
1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005
The Balkans do not have a conventional crime problem
Bulgaria
The rate of murder in Bulgaria declined steadily from its peak in 1994, from almost six per 100,000 to a third of that today. In 2006, the rate is the lowest it has been since 1987, when the country was still under authoritar-ian government. If these figures were comparable, this would be well below average for Europe. A large share of these murders were contract killings: around 10% be-tween 2003 and 2005, declining to 7% in 2006.59 Serbia
Homicides in Serbia appear to have been in decline for some time. From peaks in 1994 and 1997, the murder rate has dropped by two thirds. Official figures from the last three years are unbelievably low, with fewer than 100 murders in 2006, giving Serbia a rate of less than one murder per 100,000 citizens.
Murder rates in the province of Kosovo have also been in decline, dropping by 75% in five years. Based on population projections from a 2001 estimate made by OSCE (2.4 million), the police recorded rate today is un-der three per 100,000. As in Albania, there may be some under-reporting, and according to the 2007 Progress Report on Kosovo by the European Commission, “The format and the content of key crime data are inconsist-ent at regional and cinconsist-entral level.”60 But the Kosovo Police Service is receiving highly competent help from interna-tional experts, and it is unlikely that many murders are missed, given the proliferation of security personnel. If anything, the rate of under capture should be declining, meaning the nominal decline could actually be conceal-ing an even more dramatic decrease.
In summary, available data suggest that murder rates in South East Europe (with the likely exception of Moldo-va) are comparable to those found in Western Europe, and decreasing all the time. In fact, combining the data from Moldova, Albania, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Serbia, the number of murders in the region essentially halved between 1998 and 2006 (Figure).
This dramatic, cross-national trend calls out to be ex-plained. There may be some basis for questioning the capacity of some of the poorer countries in the region to collect reliable national statistics, but even if only half Intentional homicides in Serbia
Figure 32:
2004-2006
Source: Serbian Ministry of Interior
Intentional homicides in Kosovo (Serbia) Figure 33:
2000-2005
Source: UNMIK61
Regional murder count Figure 34:
Source: National data sources62 3.00
2.40
0.95 1.41 1.34 1.66 1.48 2.03 1.95 1.99
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
11.8
9.4
5.0
3.6 3.2 2.9
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Murders per 100,000
1130 1365 1256 1581 1488
1841 1772 2037 2185
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
the murders committed were recorded, the rates would remain relatively low. And this possible deficiency would not explain the fact that every single country for which published time series data are available is showing the same downward trend. All the countries of the region are under pressure to show progress in fighting crime, but, given that the press, opposition parties, and the in-ternational community are vigilant in most, coordinated misdirection of the scale necessary to change the over-all picture is highly unlikely. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that South East Europe is one of the safer areas of the world, and that progress is being made in making the region even safer.