This paper proposes an indirect standardization of crude rates as the most useful and informative approach for relating U.S. crime rates to the level of crime in other countries. Using the age/sex-specific homicide arrest records for 1980, the standardization of international homicide arrest rates produces a summary statistic that represents what the study country's homicide rate would be, given its population's age and sex distribution, if it were subjected to the age/sex-specific rates that applied in the United States at that time. This method offers a simple, comprehensive measure of crime and allows the evaluation of relative crime rates across countries while controlling for factors known to affect crime, but for which little can be done to reduce crime (e.g., getting rid of young males). Age/sex adjusted rates are presented for 76 countries that show that while the United States has a higher homicide rate than all but 15; in most cases, the magnitude of difference, with age and sex uncontrolled, is overestimated. 2 tables, 2 figures, and 30 references. (Author abstract modified)