MORE BAD NEWS FOR SWEDEN: They’re poorer than the United States — heck, they’re poorer than Mississippi according to a Swedish study — but they also have more crime! That’s according to the U.N.-sponsored International Crime Victims Survey, which is hardly likely to have a pro-American, anti-Swedish tilt. Excerpt:

The ICVS allows an overall measure of victimisation which is the percentage of people victimised once or more in the previous year by any of the eleven crimes covered by the survey. This prevalence measure is a simple but robust indicator of overall proneness to crime. The countries fall into three bands.

Above 24%: (victim of any crime in 1999): Australia, England and Wales, the Netherlands and Sweden
20%-24%: Canada, Scotland, Denmark, Poland, Belgium, France, and USA
Under 20%: Finland, Catalonia (Spain), Switzerland, Portugal, Japan and Northern Ireland.

(emphasis added)

What’s more, European crime is generally rising; North American crime is generally falling. Here’s a story from the Telegraph on the survey with some interesting bar graphs listing the top-ten nations in four crime categories. The United States appears in only one — for burglary — where it’s number eight. Excerpt:

After Australia and England and Wales, the highest prevalence of crime was in Holland (25 per cent), Sweden (25 per cent) and Canada (24 per cent). The United States, despite its high murder rate, was among the middle ranking countries with a 21 per cent victimisation rate.

Can you establish a linkage between welfare-statism and crime? Take it away, Mickey Kaus!