A crime index with Thurstone's scaling of crime severity

In constructing a weighted crime index for Hong Kong, the Thurstone's method of paired comparisons was used to assess the perceived relative seriousness of fifteen crime typologies. A telephone survey was conducted to collect data on respondents' judgment on the seriousness of the fifteen crimes. The weights of the fifteen crimes constructed were then used to build up a time series of weighted crime index (WCI). The WCI performs differ entry from the unweighted crime index (UNCI) during the period 1976 to 1982. The validity of the weights has been tested and the WCI is considered as a better indicator of crime intensity. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.