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Please select three countries from the 2007 Transparency International

Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). It is located at

transparency.org/en/cpi/2019

.

There are 180 countries listed there. Pick one country ranked in the top one-third, one

country ranked in the bottom one-third, and one country in the middle of the scale.

For the selected three countries, find the crime rates for two crimes of your choice in

2019 from the official statistics available at

https://data.unodc.org

. Once you are on

the UN webpage, pick the category Violent and Sexual Crime and select rate per

100,000 population as the unit of measurement. Make sure that the data for these

three countries are available on

both

data sources. If not, then select other countries.

At the beginning of your report, please write down the names of the three

countries, their CPI rankings, and official crime rates (per 100,000) for both crimes,

as well as the names of crime types. In your report, you will need to address several

questions:

1)

Do official crime rates differ across the three countries for the two crimes you

selected? (Hint: we are assuming that they do, so do not spend a lot of time on

this question and move to question 2).

2)

If they do, what would be alternative argumentsbeyond the differences in

the crime levels themselvesthat can be used to explain these differences?

Please list and explain at least 5 reasons (Hint: its useful to provide 6 or 7

reasons to be sure that you have 5 correct ones).

For each reason, state clearly the argument (e.g., definitions of crime differ

across countries) and then apply it to your countries and crimes (e.g., Egypt has a

much narrower definition of rape than Croatia). Then, explain why you think that

this is the case (e.g., while the Croatian laws recognize that the victim of rape can be

either female and male, Egypt excludes men as victims of rape and recognizes only

women as victims. Similarly, marital rape is excluded from the definition of rape in

Egypt, but it is included in the definition of rape in Croatia) and how it is affecting the

crime rate (e.g., In addition to the differences in the actual level of rape, we would

expect that the official rate of rape would be much lower in Egypt than in Croatia

because Egypts definition of rape is narrower than the Croatian as it excludes men as

victims and marital rape).

As you write your reasons, you do not need to compare across all 3 countries

for all reasons. Each of your reasons can include a comparison across only 2 countries,

but they do not need to be the same 2 countries across all 5 reasons (e.g., Country 1

and Country 2 in reason #1; Country 2 and Country 3 in reason #2). Similarly, it is

easier to articulate the arguments if each reason focuses on only one crime (e.g., rape).

You can use the other crime in your explanation of the next reason (e.g., crime 1 in

reason #1; crime 2 in reason #3).

While it is OK to do some basic internet search about these countries, please do

not spend a lot of time doing so. This is not an assignment about the internet search or

library search; rather, the purpose of the assignment is for you to apply your

knowledge about factors other than the crime rates that would explain differences in

the level of crime.

The brainstorming activity that you have conducted with classmates is very

similar in nature to this short assignment. Now, you need to be specific about the

reasons why these countries (e.g., USA, Nigeria, and Argentina) differ in their specific

crimes (e.g., rape, burglary) rate per 100,000.

If you need a hint, look at the last

section of the handout for this unit on crime measurement and apply these ideas to

your specific countries and specific crimes. Please keep in mind that these are official

data and, hence, any explanation related to the alternative data sources may not be

applicable.

Please upload your essay on D2L (look for the folder Short Assignments).