Britain, The Most Violent Country In Europe: Violence Rate Is 4.36 Times Worse Than in The U.S.

Related info:

Britain: ‘Gun Ban Caused 40% Jump In Gun Crime’ (Video)


– ?The most violent country in Europe: Britain is also worse than South Africa and U.S. (Daily Mail, Jan 10, 2013):

Britain’s violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European union, it has been revealed.

Official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa – widely considered one of the world’s most dangerous countries.

The figures comes on the day new Home Secretary Alan Johnson makes his first major speech on crime, promising to be tough on loutish behaviour.

The Tories said Labour had presided over a decade of spiralling violence.

In the decade following the party’s election in 1997, the number of recorded violent attacks soared by 77 per cent to 1.158million – or more than two every minute.

The figures, compiled from reports released by the European Commission and United Nations, also show:

  • The UK has the second highest overall crime rate in the EU.
  • It has a higher homicide rate than most of our western European neighbours, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
  • The UK has the fifth highest robbery rate in the EU.
  • It has the fourth highest burglary rate and the highest absolute number of burglaries in the EU, with double the number of offences than recorded in Germany and France.

But it is the naming of Britain as the most violent country in the EU that is most shocking. The analysis is based on the number of crimes per 100,000 residents.

In the UK, there are 2,034 offences per 100,000 people, way ahead of second-placed Austria with a rate of 1,677.

The U.S. has a violence rate of 466 crimes per 100,000 residents, Canada 935, Australia 92 and South Africa 1,609.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: ‘This is a damning indictment of this government’s comprehensive failure over more than a decade to tackle the deep rooted social problems in our society, and the knock on effect on crime and anti-social behaviour.

‘We’re now on our fourth Home Secretary this parliament, and all we are getting is a rehash of old initiatives that didn’t work the first time round. More than ever Britain needs a change of direction.’The figures, compiled by the Tories, are considered the most accurate and up-to-date available.

But criminologists say crime figures can be affected by many factors, including different criminal justice systems and differences in how crime is reported and measured.

In Britain, an affray is considered a violent crime, while in other countries it will only be logged if a person is physically injured.

There are also degrees of violence. While the UK ranks above South Africa for all violent crime, South Africans suffer more than 20,000 murders each year – compared with Britain’s 921 in 2007.

Experts say there are a number of reasons why violence is soaring in the UK. These include Labour’s decision to relax the licensing laws to allow round-the-clock opening, which has led to a rise in the number of serious assaults taking place in the early hours of the morning.

But Police Minister David Hanson said: ‘These figures are misleading.
Levels of police recorded crime statistics from different countries are simply not comparable since they are affected by many factors, for example the recording of violent crime in other countries may not include behaviour that we would categorise as violent crime.

‘Violent crime in England and Wales has fallen by almost a half a peak in 1995 but we are not complacent and know there is still work to do. That is why last year we published ‘Saving lives. Reducing harm. Protecting the public. An Action Plan for Tackling Violence 2008-11′.’

The timing of the Europe-wide violence figures is a blow for Mr Johnson, who will today seek to reassert Labour’s law and order credentials.

In his first major speech on crime since becoming Home Secretary, Mr Johnson is expected to promise a concerted crack down on antisocial behaviour.

He wants to set up a website to allow the public to see what is taking place in their neighbourhood, such as the number of louts who have been served with Asbos.

Mr Johnson is also known to support early intervention to stop children going off the rails.

10 thoughts on “Britain, The Most Violent Country In Europe: Violence Rate Is 4.36 Times Worse Than in The U.S.”

  1. Austerity doesn’t work. Breaking into homes and robbing people and stores indicate poverty-based problems. Starving the people to enrich the few will cause any nation to end up with these problems. Really, not so shocking if one looks at the numbers.
    I am surprised Greece and Spain are not #1 due to the financial suffering there, but give them time.
    This is so depressing. The UK was once a place I had planned to move to when things got bad here…….no longer.

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  2. Could it be that the UK’s strict gun control policies are not only NOT WORKING, but are indeed contributing to the violent crime? It is true that the UK has far less homicides than the United States, a country with more guns than the world combined. However, other violent crime in the US pales in comparison to the UK. More guns means LESS crime.

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  3. I’m confused, when I look at the data from the united nations (which is available freely at gapminder.com) the murder rate in England is lowest on the planet. They quote the murder rate in the UK to 0.435 (murder/100,000 people). Here you can look for yourself http://www.bit.ly/YEzzld.

    In fact the guardian addressed just what you are talking about here. They keep statistics on crime in England and they attribute the increase in violence to lax alcohol regulations.

    “Home Office research has shown that alcohol is the root cause of nearly half of all violent crime, and of 70% of hospital emergency and accident weekend-night admissions. Friday and Saturday nights across the country see large numbers of young people – many under the legal age for drinking – spilling on to the streets at a late hour, ready for trouble.”

    What is amazing is that despite the high violent crime levels, the UK has the lowest murder rates of any country in the world. What an amazing argument for gun control you have found here. You have a country that is full of thugs drinking and beating each other up, and yet they have the lowest murder rate of any country in the world.

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  4. In the US, we have 88 guns per 100,000 people. Our current murder rate is equal to that of our 1960 murder rate.

    In the UK, while you have a very low murder rate… you’re currently DOUBLE your 1960 murder rate, even though you’ve more or less banned guns.

    Hmmm…

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  5. Statistics of violent crime cannot be compared with other countries. There are too many factors affecting it. The UK is the most watched country in the world in terms of CCTV cameras, it is known that irbid very hard to get away with any crime in the UK. Also the laws differ, the UK takes a no tolerance approach to any type of violence. For example in the UK if you were to hit someone, it is considered a violent crime, in short any type of pain is a violent crime. While the U.S. you need to injure someone where they need medical assistance as the lowest type of voliolent crime. If the numbers were adjusted for the variations in laws it would mean the UK being one the least violent countries in the west. It’s just logic, how can Belgium be a more violent country than the US, nothing happens in Belgium

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  6. Apparently, the socialists didn’t want people to know that other european countries have the worst school and theatre shootings in world history, either! Beslan school in southern russia 2004 (322 dead) and the Moscow Dubravka theatre massacre in 2002 (170 dead ) are by far worse than anything here in the U.S.! …As many folks know, Russia has the toughest gun control laws on the planet with very little success accompanied with by Brits who think that they’re better than us, some how! …lol

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