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. In other words, if convictions are taken as an indicator of crime, crime used to be much higher and experienced a steady decline between 1830 and 1930, when it reached its lowest point. The current trend may be a reversal of this 100-year trend or it may be an upward tick in a general decline of crime. Using statistics for homicide in England from 1200 to 1980, Gurr identified the same trend, and it was even more pronounced. The middle ages and the times of industrialization and urbanization were not peaceful times in England.
Some generalizations are possible.
The mix of crimes among categories of countries has also been compared. When countries are divided into developed and developing countries, the mix changes. In developed countries, crimes against property constituted 82 percent of all crimes, crime against persons accounted for 10 percent, and drug offenses accounted for 8 percent. The changing ratio of property to person offenses is seen by some scholars as an indication of development.19 The less developed a country, the greater is the percentage of person crime, and as a country moves toward development, the percentage of person crimes drops and the percentage for property crimes increases. A rough generalization, then, is that in developed countries, property crimes are by far the dominant form of criminality.