The exception is Japan. Crime declined slightly between 1950 and the middle 1980s, but has been rising since then.13 Crime in developing countries is at a fairly low level but is rising quickly. Crime in socialist countries remains at a low level but has been rising. A couple of comments on these trends. Countries differ in the magnitude of crimes and growth and decline of trends.
Japan consistently has crime levels which are much lower and hold steady over time.
The trend lines for other countries, since the Second World War, tend to go up, but at different rates. For example, property crimes in European countries tended to be lower than those of the United States. Crime in Western societies has risen over the last 40 years. The question is whether this trend is a continuation of one established long ago or whether the recent upward trend is merely a fluctuation in a longer downward trend. Gurr compared crime data for four Western societies since 1830.16 Using convictions for crimes of theft and violence, he found that crime in 1830 was roughly four times higher than crime in 1930, when it began to rise.