Cross-national research on crime has been hampered by the lack of comparability of official crime data across nations. The International Crime Victimization Surveys (ICVS) provide crime data that avoid the problems of national variations in defining, reporting, and recording crimes. The research reported in this article uses ICVS data to examine the two major theoretical perspectives on cross-national crime variation-modernization and economic stress. Little support is found for the modernization perspective, and moderate support is found for the economic stress perspective. By examining differences in victimization rates between people below and above the median income within nations, this article also examines whether culture moderates the effect of economic stress on crime victimization. Results indicate that cultural context does influence whether people below or above median income are more frequently crime victims, particularly in Asian nations.
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