Marc OUIMET, L'aigle et le castor: étude de la distribution spatiale de la criminalité aux États-Unis et au Canada

“L'aigle et le castor: étude de la distribution spatiale de la criminalité
aux États-Unis et au Canada” (1993)
Résumé

Une édition électronique réalisée à partir de l'article de Marc OUIMET, “L'aigle et le castor: étude de la distribution spatiale de la criminalité aux États-Unis et au Canada”. Un article publié dans la revue Criminologie, vol. XXVI, no 2, 1993, pp. 85-102. Montréal: École de Criminologie, Université de Montréal. [Autorisation accordée par l'auteur le 11 septembre 2006]

Résumé

In the fast three decades, a number of researchers have undertook the comparison of American and Canadian crime rates. Among them, Lipset (1990) and Hagan (1991) have shown that violence was more frequent south of the border than north of it. To explain why crime was more frequent in the US than in Canada, those authors argued that differences in values and culture of each country's residents was the principal determinant of this situation. Using regional and infranational disaggregated crime rates, this article shows that differences in both country's crime rates are not univocal. For example, crime rates in Canada are not higher than those of Northern United States for three crimes out of four studied. What makes US crime rates appear much higher than the Canadian ones can be attributable to a small number of States and cities which have extraordinarily high crime rates.