The Legacy of INTERPOL Crime Data to Cross‐National Criminology

INTERPOL crime data constitute the oldest and most continuous cross‐national data series available to criminologists. Recently, INTERPOL has decided to forego its data collection efforts. This paper, based on a systematic and extensive literature review, will examine how criminologists and other social scientists have used INTERPOL data to examine critical issues in the description and explanation of cross‐national crime. It will end with a critical reflection on the contribution of INTERPOL data to our knowledge base, as well as the possibilities that exist for using other data sources to continue research in this area.