DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02513
title: United Nations World Surveys on Crime Trends and Criminal Justice Systems, 1970-1994: Restructured Five-Wave Data
title: Archival Version

description: The United Nations International Crime Prevention and
 Criminal Justice Branch began the Surveys of Crime Trends and
 Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (formerly known as the World
 Crime Surveys) in 1978. The goal of the data collection effort was to
 conduct a more focused inquiry into the incidence of crime worldwide.
 To date, there have been five quinquennial surveys, covering the years
 1970-1975, 1975-1980, 1980-1986, 1986-1990, and 1990-1994,
 respectively. Starting with the 1980 data, the waves overlap by one
 year to allow for reliability and validity checks of the data. For
 this data collection, the original United Nations data were
 restructured into a standard contemporary file structure, with each
 file consisting of all data for one year. Naming conventions were
 standardized, and each country and each variable was given a unique
 identifying number. Crime variables include counts of recorded crime
 for homicide, assault, rape, robbery, theft, burglary, fraud,
 embezzlement, drug trafficking, drug possession, bribery, and
 corruption. There are also counts of suspects, persons prosecuted,
 persons convicted, and prison admissions by crime, gender, and adult
 or juvenile status. Other variables include the population of the
 country and largest city, budgets and salaries for police, courts, and
 prisons, and types of sanctions, including imprisonment, corporal
 punishment, deprivation of liberty, control of freedom, warning, fine,
 and community sentence. The countries participating in the survey and
the variables available vary by year.
description: The United Nations International Crime
 Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch began the Surveys of Crime Trends 
 and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (formerly known as the World 
 Crime Surveys) in 1978. The goal of the data collection effort was to 
 conduct a more focused inquiry into the incidence of crime worldwide. To 
 date, there have been five quinquennial surveys, covering the years
 1970-1975, 1975-1980, 1980-1986, 1986-1990, and 1990-1994, respectively.
 Starting with 1980, the waves overlap by one year to allow for reliability
 and validity checks of the data. For this data collection, the file
 structure and naming conventions were standardized across waves to
facilitate cross-national comparisons and other analyses.
description: This data collection reconfigured the original
 United Nations data into a standard contemporary file structure, with
 each file consisting of all data for one year. The data received from
 the United Nations were entered into a computerized dataset, using SAS
 on a mainframe for the second survey and SPSS PC+ for the third and
 subsequent waves. Each country and each variable was given a unique
 identifying number. Some of the variables in the original dataset were
 not maintained in this version, because the principal investigators
 decided that they had no value or potential for analysis. This applies
 particularly to the first three surveys, where some variables were
 difficult to interpret and others contained almost no data. The
 original datasets, in the original configuration, are held by the
 United Nations office in Vienna, and can be requested by anyone with a
 particular interest in any of the variables omitted from this
collection.
description: Crime variables include counts of recorded crime
 for homicide, assault, rape, robbery, theft, burglary, fraud,
 embezzlement, drug trafficking, drug possession, bribery, and
 corruption. There are also counts of suspects, persons prosecuted,
 persons convicted, and prison admissions by crime, gender, and adult
 or juvenile status. Other variables include the population of the
 country and largest city, budgets and salaries for police, courts, and
 prisons, and types of sanctions, including imprisonment, corporal
 punishment, deprivation of liberty, control of freedom, warning, fine,
and community sentence.
description: Response Rates: Not applicable.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: The surveys were distributed to member and nonmember
states of the United Nations and completed on a voluntary basis.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Wave I, 1970 Data
DS2: Wave I, 1971 Data
DS3: Wave I, 1972 Data
DS4: Wave I, 1973 Data
DS5: Wave I, 1974 Data
DS6: Wave I, 1975 Data
DS7: Wave II, 1975 Data
DS8: Wave II, 1976 Data
DS9: Wave II, 1977 Data
DS10: Wave II, 1978 Data
DS11: Wave II, 1979 Data
DS12: Wave II, 1980 Data
DS13: Wave III, 1980 Data
DS14: Wave III, 1981 Data
DS15: Wave III, 1982 Data
DS16: Wave III, 1983 Data
DS17: Wave III, 1984 Data
DS18: Wave III, 1985 Data
DS19: Wave III, 1986 Data
DS20: Wave IV, 1986 Data
DS21: Wave IV, 1987 Data
DS22: Wave IV, 1988 Data
DS23: Wave IV, 1989 Data
DS24: Wave IV, 1990 Data
DS25: Wave V, 1990 Data
DS26: Wave V, 1991 Data
DS27: Wave V, 1992 Data
DS28: Wave V, 1993 Data
DS29: Wave V, 1994 Data
DS30: Text Comments for Wave III
DS31: Text Comments for Wave IV
DS32: Text Comments for Wave V
DS33: Merged 1970-1994 Data
description: All countries.
description: (1) The user guide, codebooks, and data collection
 instruments are provided as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The
 PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be
 accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat
 Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is
 provided on the ICPSR Web site. (2) While the United Nations
 International Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch originally
 collected these data, this particular data collection is not an
 official product of the United Nations. For more information on the
 original United Nations data, users are advised to consult the United Nations Crime and Justice
Information Network.