In UK a murder is only recorded as such if it is proven and they are convicted, even then it only accounts for one murder even though there may of been several.
In UK there is a higher missing peoples rate than in the US. A percentage of missing people are inevitably victims of murder / homicide with bodies effectively disposed of (UK is an island, its well known that organised gangsters have contracts with fishermen etc dispose of bodies out to see).
Even with these factors taken into account, US will still have a far higher murder rate. Why? Some factors are, no wellfair system, little nationally funded health, and the cost of healthcare in US is 5X the cost of UK private health! Needless to say a lot of people in the US are in desperate situations whereas in UK people often get the basic essentials provided for them. The fact that guns have been banned for last 15 to 20yrs also helps. A lot of domestic killings whereas firearms were used has obviously dramatically decreased, however youth gang shootings have increased, at the moment its sort of balanced out but could go either way?
Other ethnicities often get blammed for the murders in the UK and big urbanisation but ironically England has the lowest murder rate, Scotland & Northern Island where other ethnicities are far lower the murder rate is much higher plus the populations are smaller so that turns that on its head. Obviously there are more gangsters and shootings in England / general murders but percentagly it is the lowest. One of the reasons why the murder rate is lowest in England, more money, although there is poverty there is less poverty, England is the wealthiest state in the UK. UK is a violent country throughout, this is mainly alcohol fueled street fighting and thug mentality for which it is well known for, also pritty much all other crime is very high here, rape, burglary, GTA etc, murder not so bad. UK is the CCTV capital of the world, with a very high success rate, 90% of murderers are convicted provided the police are in possession of the body. I can’t be certain but I think this is one of, if not the highest success rate in the world and criminals know it. Murder in the UK and you will very likely get caught unless your a professional and you know how to operate.
I hear people mention, US has a drug problem and the UK doesn’t????? BEHAVE!!! UK is one of the biggest consumers of drugs worldwide. We also export the most UK produced cannabis than any other European country including Holland! Drugs are widespread here and its always been that way. Drug dealers though mostly operate in a chummy fashion. Here drug dealers often hang-out, know each other, share contacts etc, in America there appears to be much more competition which is likely due to the desperation a lot of poor people are in (remember no wellfare, little national provided health), cost of basic healthcare is extortionate, everyone gets sick but in America a simple surgical procedure could have you re-mortgaging your house, whereas in the UK its provided, its fucked up, its a western country with poverty conditions worse than most 2nd and some 3rd world countries!!!
What might help reduce murder rates?
Drug legalisation will help America, will help UK in so far that it will take away the easiest income to make illegally, less crooks is always a good thing (remember we do have gangsters that use guns here but less so than America).
Provide decant wellfare
Put the police efforts into cutting down on thug mentality, i.e street fighting, yob’s etc, a lot of people die each weekend due to this but its not accounted as murder. This, at least in the UK would be a good area of focus.
In terms of trying to compare UK, US stats, what would be better would be homocide stats (that I can’t find) i.e intentional / non intentional, missing people stats. Then you get an absolute bearing on who has died due non health related factors (i.e illness) and how many people are missing in total, then you can intuitively gage / essess to picture clearer, although it wouldn’t be absolute.