Violent crime

Violent criminals who use hostile acts towards others include murderers, active shooters, robbers, kidnappers, rapists, burglars, muggers and torturers.

Often this is not possible, because crime statistics aggregate equivalent offences in such different ways that make it difficult or impossible to obtain a valid comparison.

[5] Personal crimes included in the survey are: One type of sexual offense is Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).

Intimate Partner Violence[6] often stems from other violent tendencies/ behavior such as anger, lack of self-control and/or mental instability.

[11] Canada also collects information on crime victimization every five years via its General Social Survey on Victimisation (GSS).

[12] Before the country adopted the Australian standard for classifying offences (ASOC) in 2010,[13] New Zealand's crime statistics[14] had a category for violence that included homicides, kidnapping, abduction, robbery, assaults, intimidation, threats, and group assembly, while all sexual offences were shown in a separate category from violence.

[18] The rationale behind the change was that instead of just simply recording the offense, analyzing who exactly is the victim and who exactly is the offender can be more helpful in understanding the nature of the violent crime along with pointing out any trends/patterns.

[9] Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, England, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece and Sweden count minor violence such as slapping another person as assault.

Kasidaris, then spokesperson for Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party, slapped a left-wing female opponent in the face during a live televised debate.

"The 2010/11 BCS showed overall violence was down 47 percent on the level seen at its peak in 1995; representing nearly two million fewer violent offences per year."

[29] The UCR tracks similar non-fatal violence, plus murder and non-negligent manslaughter recorded by law enforcement.

Since they use different methodologies and measure overlapping, but not identical, crimes, the data are complementary and not necessarily congruent.

Compared to statistics from last year, robbery, rape, and burglary offenses saw a decrease in rates while assault and murder saw a slight increase.

The UCR rates for forcible rape are so low because women are unlikely to report being a victim of this violent behavior.

Poverty can promote a Darwinian "survival of the fittest" approach where personal prosperity is prioritised over the lives of others, leading to an increased tolerance for committing violent crime.