"Per capita, Vatican City has the highest crime rate in the world."

Bet that headline caught your eye. The line caught mine as well, and comes from this story by CNS "Crime and punishment: Vatican City tackles vast array of crimes." Some highlights (underlining mine):

"Like the Italian system, he said, the Vatican judicial system is an inverted pyramid: Marrone is the sole judge at the bottom, then there's the three-judge tribunal, followed by the appeals court and the supreme court of appeals at the top. But the Italian system is fraught with imperfections -- like the glacial speed with which it goes through and resolves cases."

"One loophole that needs to be tightened is the lack of legislation regarding the possession and sale of illegal drugs; this became apparent this year after a Vatican employee was caught with 87 grams of cocaine."

"Per capita, Vatican City has the highest crime rate in the world. The vast majority of penal cases handled by the court usually involve theft, especially pickpockets, but the perpetrators never are caught in a very high percentage of those cases. According to the most recent published statistics, 472 criminal cases were reported in 2006 -- almost one crime per resident for a country with only 492 inhabitants. But those figures are deceiving since the high crime rate stems from the sheer volume of people -- some 18 million each year-- that stream through the Vatican to visit St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums."

"However, not long ago there was a short-lived golden age of a crime-free Vatican. For two weeks during the papal transition in April 2005 no crimes were reported and no charges were brought to the Vatican's court. Criminal activity normally surges during times when huge crowds of pilgrims and tourists converge on the Vatican, and some 6 million people flooded the Vatican between April 2, the day Pope John Paul died, and April 19, the day Pope Benedict XVI was elected. But as the world stood still awaiting the next pope, robbers and criminals stayed away -- or at least were on their best behavior."

Although it certainly doesn't count as a crime, the last time I was at the Vatican they confiscated my beloved leatherman pocket knife, making it much more difficult to open bottles of beer and wine during the remainder of my travels. Oh well, I made do.