UK is Europe's most violent crime capital: European Commission

London, July 2 (ANI): A European Commission research has revealed that the United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of violence in the world, making it the violent crime capital of Europe.

The commission's research was based on combined crime statistics from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which took into account about 5.4 million crimes recorded in 2007.

A breakdown of the statistics, revealed that violent crime in the UK had increased from 652,974 offences in 1998 to more than 1.15 million crimes in 2007, which meant there were over 2,000 crimes recorded per 100,000 population in the UK, the Telegraph reports.

The research also reveals that total number of violent offences recorded compared to population is much more than any other country in Europe, Australia, Canada, America and South Africa.

Concerned about the revelation, Chris Grayling, Shadow Home Secretary, said: "This is a real damning indictment of this government's comprehensive failure over more than a decade to tackle the deep rooted social problems in our society, and the knock-on effect on crime and anti-social behaviour.

The UK recorded 927 murders in 2007, the rate was higher than most of the western European neighbours, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Meanwhile, the Home Office refused to accept the analysis and claimed that there has been a downtrend in overall violence over the past decade.

"These figures are misleading. Levels of police recorded crime statistics from different countries are simply not comparable since they are affected by many factors, for example the recording of violent crime in other countries may not include behaviour that we would categorise as violent crime," said a Home Office spokesperson.

"Violent crime in England and Wales has fallen by almost a half since a peak in 1995 but we are not complacent and know there is still work to do," he added. (ANI)