How does the United States rank in comparison to other Western
countries in regard to rates of violent crimes against women and
children?

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Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 03 Dec 2003 07:04 PST

Dear Suejo, 

Are you refering to violent crime which is uniquely applied against
women and children such as:
- rape and sexual assults
- domestic abuse

Or also to any type of crime that might have been directed against women/children: 
- property crime 
- homicide
- drug related violent crime

etc. ? 

It must be noted that my colleague Pinkfreud is right in her comment.
For example, slapping a child might be regarded as a "violent crime"
in the US, while in France there has been a serious debate on the
question. Spousal rape, as shocking as it may sound, is not considered
a crime in some countries. The rates of reported crime could be also
much different from actual crime rates in this kind of offences, as in
some cultures, less women and minors report the crime as in others.

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Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 03 Dec 2003 08:05 PST

While my two colleagues' comments have good points, I on the side have
found an article mentioning that Australia and England seem to rank
higher than the US when it comes to how much percent of the population
have become victims of violent crimes. But this counts crimes in
general, and is not focused on crimes toward women and children. And
as my colleagues said, the definition of "violent crime" can differ
with each country, maybe a factor in the abovementioned statistics.

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Clarification of Question by suejo-ga on 05 Dec 2003 04:47 PST

How does the United States rank in comparison to other Western
countries in regard to rates of rape and murder against women and
children?

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Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 06 Dec 2003 05:52 PST

Hello again, Suejo, 
I have found a page which ranks countries on different statistics such
as rape, murder, rape by capita, murder by capita, etc. The rape
statistics are based on women as victims, but the murder statisitcs
are not. Also the time of the statistics vary from 1999 to 2001, even
in the same graph. Would this information be good enough for you as an
answer?

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Clarification of Question by suejo-ga on 08 Dec 2003 06:34 PST

In answer to Techtor's question: yes, I'd like the data as you suggest.

Thanks, Suejo, for accepting my proposal to post an answer. The
following information I've collected shows a website,
Nationmaster.com, that can present different statistics based on what
you select in the upper right bars. For example "Compare" allows to
choose how many results to show in the graph. "In category" allows you
to look at certain kinds of topics, like environment, economy and
religion, but for our purpose we chose crime. "With Statistic" allows
you to choose murder, arson, rape or other statistics. "View as" is up
to you.

Nationmaster.com - Map & Graph: Top 100 Crime: Rape victims
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_rap_vic
- According to this webpage, the USA ranks 16th in term of how much of
population are rape victims.

Nationmaster.com - Map & Graph: Top 100 Crime: Rapes
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_rap
- US Ranks no. 1 in terms of how many are recorded rapes.

Map & Graph: Top 20 Crime: Rapes (per capita)
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_rap_cap&int=20
- How many rapes happen per 1000 people.

Nationmaster.com - Map & Graph: Top 100 Crime: Murders
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_mur


Meanwhile, I have found other websites with articles on what country
seems to top a certain sort of crime. The trend might have been to put
the US on top in some crimes, but these days, other countries, like
South Africa, have been competing.

Other websites that compare the US to other countries:
CEASE - Rape Statistics
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~ad361896/anne/cease/rapestatisticspage.html
- "The United States has the world's highest rape rate of the
countries that publish such statistics. It's 4 times higher than
Germany, 13 times higher than England, and 20 times higher than
Japan."

WorldNetDaily: U.S. child murder rate soars
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=15329
- "The most recent statistical data available on child homicide rates,
Murray said, indicated that the U.S. had the highest infant-child
homicide rate -- four times as high -- as all other Western nations
surveyed, at 4.1 children per 100,000 people." (year 2000 statistics)

Juvenile Murders: Guns Least Of It
Iain Murray
The Christian Science Monitor, Monday, March 27, 2000
http://www.kc3.com/editorial/Juvenile_murders.htm
- "In other Western countries, the report tells us, the homicide rate
for children age 4 and under is just less than 1 per 100,000. But it's
quadruple that in the US, at 4.1 per 100,000. And for every American
child 4 or younger, more than eight others die violently by other
means - blunt objects, strangulation, or, most commonly, hands, fists,
or feet." (year 2000 statistics)

Aman Daily News - October 15, 2003
Our Child Rape Shame
Cape Argus by Johan Schronen
http://www.amanjordan.org/english/daily_news/wmview.php?ArtID=3004
- "According to Interpol, South Africa has the highest incidence of
rape in the world. Latest police statistics show that children are the
victims of 41% of all rapes and attempted rapes reported." (2003
statistics)

Reuters Wire | 04/17/2002 | U.S. women face highest murder risk
http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/3083744.htm

Club Cobra - Countries with the highest murder rate - Surprise!
http://www.clubcobra.com/t46337.html
- According to this message board posting, the latest statistics show
that South Africa leads over the US in having the most murders.



While I was looking for statistics on murder of females, I looked up
domestic violence statistics in case they may be helpful:

Buzzle.com: Domestic Violence Statistics
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/7-24-2003-43341.asp

Safe Passage - Facts about Domestic Violence (old statistics)
http://www.safepass.org/two.html


Other possibly relevant links:
Now.org - Violence Against Women in the United States
http://www.now.org/issues/violence/stats.html

Feminist.com: FACTS ABOUT VIOLENCE
http://www.feminist.com/antiviolence/facts.html

Kids Statistics - Children in statistics
From Index on Censorship, March/April 1997
http://www.oneworld.org/index_oc/issue297/stats.htm

WorldNetDaily: Britain, Australia top U.S. in violent crime
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=21902

Kidsafenetwork.com Statistics
http://www.kidsafenetwork.com/statistics.htm

Children as victims: Compiled and BOES.ORG-published 1997
http://boes.org/coop/censor1.html

NIJ - International Center - Global Crime Issues
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/international/review2.html

RAPE, ABUSE AND INCEST NATIONAL NETWORK (RAINN)
http://www.feminist.com/rainn.htm

SIGI Statistics: Women and Violence
http://www.sigi.org/Resource/stats.htm


The statistics for each country are changing each year, but I still
believe US is still on top in murder and rape of women. I assume
though South Africa might be on the top now in child murder and rape.


Google search terms used:
violent crime rank countries
rape country statistics
united states country rape statistics
child murder statistics
child murder statistics countries
women murder statistics countries
women top murder rates country

While not exactly everything you want is here, I hope a great deal of
it has been found at least. If you need anything else, or have a
problem with the answer, do please post a Request for Clarification
before rating and I shall respond as soon as I can. Thank you.

Excellent, thank you.  Now if you could only tell us why our
culture/society is so violent and how to change it...

If such statistics exist, I would think they'd have little meaning.
Many things (particularly domestic violence) that we in the United
States would define as crimes are considered standard practice in many
countries.

Thank you for the rating and the tip!

Yes, it's sad to think why our society could be so violent. I guess
it's a mixture of many things - uncontrolled desires, collapse of
moral values, disregard for the well-being of others... so many things
add up, and it sure is difficult or takes much time to stop all that.
Well, that's all I could say in a nutshell for now.