Hall 1

Reed Hall

English 101

Dr. Cassel

3 July, 2021

Literature Review

The research question is stated as “What are the safest countries to live in outside of the

United States and why?”. Traveling from country to country always comes with its dangers and

threats, and research should be done to ensure safety before doing so. With this research

question, the goal is to find multiple countries that will guarantee safety to anyone living in the

specified country, or wanting to travel for a relaxing and safe getaway. The research focuses on

the characteristics of each of the selected countries that lead to a safe environment and life.

Finding out why these countries are the safest and what they do inside the country to ensure that

is a key point to this research. Being able to find countries safer than the US will not be a

problem, but focusing on the deeper reasoning to that country being safe will be where most of

the research is directed towards. The research will prove the different ways these countries stay

safe and why there are no serious threats that would invoke any uneasy feelings about living

there. The goal is to write this paper with not only the thought of why these countries are safe,

but why someone would live in these countries. Throughout the research, pros and cons will be

determined and compared to other countries that are deemed to be safe, and guarantee a threat

free life.

The first, and most important, source is The Global Peace Index. The Global Peace Index

is an index of every country on Earth ranking them on a 1-5 scale on different categories to

determine the ultimate peace and safety of each country. The multiple categories cover almost
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every safety measure a country could have or could not have, ranging from their relations with

neighboring countries, to each country's individual access to nuclear weapons. In this paper only

countries ranking within the top fifteen of the index will be focused on. These countries are:

“Iceland (1), New Zealand (2), Switzerland (7), Canada (10), and Japan (12)” (The Institute For

Economics & Peace). These five countries are not only some of the most safe and peaceful

countries to live in, according to the Global Peace Index, but are also well known countries. The

Global Peace Index is created by a group of researchers called the Institute for Economics &

Peace which has been making this index since 2009. The institute has been “using data collected

since 1996” and have been using this data to “identify countries at risk of falling into instability

and violence”(The Institute For Economics & Peace). This source has been used for many years

to understand what countries are the safest to live in or to travel to, to keep people from traveling

to the more dangerous and hostile countries, and to ultimately inform the public on the safety and

danger in the world.

The next source is an article about a suicide prevention tactic used in Switzerland which

talks about safety nets and barricades placed on bridges and higher points of the country to make

it nearly impossible to jump off of. This article, “Comparing Different Suicide Prevention

Measures at Bridges and Buildings: Lessons We Have Learned from a National Survey in

Switzerland” covers a very progressive way to prevent multiple suicides in their country. A tactic

that has proved to be very useful and is not used in many other countries around the world. This

article talks about how Switzwerland has implemented different ways to lower their suicide rates

at their “jumping hotspots that have [now] been secured” and how much of a difference these

solutions have made (Hemmer 1). The studies have shown that this method has caused a “mean

suicide reduction of 68.7% (barriers) and 77.1% (safety nets)” and continues to work. These
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barricades that were places only allow access to falls up to only fifteen feet, which could still be

dangerous, but not fatal (Hemmer 1). This is a very small but effective way to make the country

that much more safe and would also be beneficial if the United States were to implement some of

these ideas into different areas; the results would more than likely reflect Switzerland’s. This is

one of the many actions other countries take to make themselves safer and Switzerland is very

proactive in that way.

Another source used in the research paper is the “World Population Review'' which has a

sub-page breaking down each of the top ten safest countries from the Global Peace Index. With

the list from the GPI plenty of information was gained with this website along with multiple

topics that could answer the research question. For each of the ten safest countries, this website

focuses on the WHY these countries are so safe. The main focus to make these determinations

are the: “Number of internal and external violent conflicts, level of distrust, political instability,

potential for terrorist acts, number of homicides, military expenditures as a percentage of GDP”

(“World Population Review ''). With these separate articles the reasoning behind these countries'

placements were described in great detail with supporting facts, and not just the stats. One of the

facts that were stated in an article was that in the Noridc Region, including Iceland, Norway,

Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, the homicide rate “is [only] 0.8 incidences per 100,000

inhabitants' ' (“World Population Review' '). This statistic was one that was very eye opening to

the fact that murders and violence in general is not common at all in these countries. Although

there are nearly 27.5 million people in this region, the rate per 100,000 people is the lowest of

any region on Earth. Homicide and crime both play a huge part in the overall safety of a country,

and with rates that low it is almost guaranteed that you will always feel safe in this area. Iceland,

being one of the countries in the Noridic Region, has been named the “safest country globally for
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the 13th year in a row” (“World Population Review ''). This website, along with the articles

included, can shape someone's perspective on the United States itself and through all of this

research the numbers show how unsafe the United States is when you compare it to other

countries, especially those of the Nordic Region.

Another source for this research paper is “Counterterrorism and the Expansion of

Proactive Police Powers in the Nordic States” which goes in depth into the different policing

techniques and methods used in order to prevent terrorism and other crimes within the Nordic

Region. There are many similarities between the way the Nordic police has been reformed after

terrorist attacks and the way the United States reformed the policing system following 9/11. For

example after the 2011 terrorist attack in Norway “new preparatory offences and broader use of

privacy-intrusive police methods” were put into use due to previous ways to avoid penalty and

access loopholes in the earlier legislation (HusabØ). Another important part of this article is the

fact that it discusses what the police are implementing into their system and legislation to make

the country safer in all aspects of life. Over the past couple of years, the Noridc policing system

has been working on what is called proactive policing powers’. What this means is that the

police focus on “the planning and preparation of crimes with the aim of preventing the crime

from being committed” which ultimately keeps the country and it’s citizens safer year round

(HusabØ). Ultimately, the terrorist attacks in Norway inclined the infrastructure of the policing

system to think about the actions before they happen. Using this tactic has allowed citizens of

these countries to feel much safer from other countries, and has secured each of these countries

from any terrorist attacks since the day this was implemented. This article answers a part of the

question on why and how the Nordic Region is home to some of the safest countries in our
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world, because of these methods there have been little to none criminal acts, homicides, and/or

terrorist attacks.

The final source is an article written about the safety of Canada called “Crime Free

Canada? Our Top Travel Safety Tips'' which talks about what makes Canada so safe. This article

is very important because of the fact that it covers the crime rates and how common crime is in

specific areas of Canada. With Canada being a very common tourist country, so close to the

United States, there is a very safe environment that Canada focuses on bringing to their visitors.

The article points to the Downtown East Side of Vancouver which is a very common place for

tourists to visit. From morning to night time this area is kept “completely safe, especially with an

increase in police presence” reducing any crime or criminal activity in the area (Sylvester). An

important point made in this article is how safe Canada is for women travelers. The most

common crimes in Canada are “petty and property crimes'' which means that as a tourist, or

anyone living in Canada, there is almost no need for you to feel unsafe. The only problem that

was very noticeable within Canada was the fact that there are not many laws protecting people

from defending themselves on the street, and it is common to face consequences for defending

yourself. These laws alone do need some reforming in order to allow casual pedestrians to

defend themselves on the streets while nobody is around to intervene. Although that is one

downfall to a tourist’s safety in Canada, there are many positive actions and laws that are

enforced in Canada in order to keep their citizens and tourists safe.

These sources are all going to be very helpful while trying to answer the research

question. With some stating personal experiences of people that have lived in these safe

countries and others listing facts, statistics, and counter-arguments that prove these countries

overall safety. After doing this research many articles were opposing the safety of these specific
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countries, but were all opinion based followed by no facts. While reading and annotating these

articles many others were saved and added to the working bibliography to use as counterpoints in

future assignments. There were many key points for the research paper using these articles and

will be citing all of the sources highlighted in the Literature Review in the Final Research Paper.

Works Cited

Hemmer, Alexander / Meier, Philipp / Reisch, Thomas. “Comparing Different Suicide

Prevention Measures at Bridges and Buildings: Lessons We Have Learned From A

National Survey In Switzerland”. PLoS ONE, vol. 12, no. 1, 6 January 2017, pp. 1-13,

https://web-a-ebscohost-com.wu.opal-libraries.org/ehost/detail/detail?

vid=10&sid=f9b3ee5a-9635-42e1-b82e-

4b470ec68013%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d

%3d#AN=120597103&db=a9h

HusabØ, Erling Johannes. “Counterterrorism and the Expansion of Proactive Police

Powers in the Nordic States”, Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology & Crime

Prevention, vol. 14, no. 1, May 2013, pp 3-23, https://web-b-ebscohost-com.wu.opal-

libraries.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=12&sid=cdab7adf-ed94-4cd4-b4a5-

00524f73c479%40sessionmgr103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d

%3d#AN=87106966&db=a9h

Sylvester, Phil. “Crime Free Canada? Our Top Travel Safety Tips” World Nomads, 23

August 2019, https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/north-america/canada/the-

crime-free-canada-myth
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“Vision Of Humanity: Global Peace Index”. The Institute for Economics and Peace,

2021, https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/

“World Population Review”. World Population Review, 2021,

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/japan-population