Crime Statistics
Issues in terms of retrieving raw data
The statistics of the Criminality Survey are not always compatible (number of decisions) to those of the relative Courts because the Judges or the Secretaries of the Courts do not fill in/ send all the Statistical Returns.
Draw also on survey data
Used as indicator
- Monitoring (trend data)
- Evaluation
Data available on
Perpetrator
Background information
- Age
- Sex
- Nationality
- ID
- Name
- Ethnicity
- Marital status
- Dependants
Incident
Incident
Victim data (age, gender, nationality), offender data (gender, age, education level, family status, number of dependent children, place of residence, profession, employment status, nationality), incident data (date, time of day, person reporting, place, number of offenders involved, nationality of persons involved, type of weapon used, number of victims involved), prosecution data including pleas, data on outcome including type of sentence, data on previous convictions, relationship between offender and victim.
Criminal statistics on sexual violence
Criminal statistical data included
Sexual offences include rape, attempt to commit rape, abduction, defilement of girls aged 13-17 years, unnatural offences, incest (violence in the family), and sexual exploitation of juveniles.
Characteristics
Reference period
Frequency of updating
Validation
The data is collected through codified questionnaires filled out by hand in the police precincts which are then sent to police headquarters. The completed codified questionnaires are then sent to the Statistical Services for data entry and analysis. According to the representative of the Statistical Services, the data then undergoes a series of validation and consistency checked using a specific programme. A validation report is then issues with errors which are subsequently checked.
Compilation
Data collected through codified questionnaires filled out by hand in the police precincts which are then sent to police headquarters. There are three codified questionnaires: One for the offence, and two for the offenders (one for adult offenders and one for juvenile offenders). The completed codified questionnaires are then sent to the Statistical Services for data entry and analysis. If the questionnaires are not filled out properly or there is information missing then the Statistical Services will go visit the Police headquarters to collect the missing data with the assistance of the police staff. Up 14000 - 15000 questionnaires may be collected including yearly cases as well as pending cases from previous years.
Quality assurance process
The report on criminal statistics is based on data from three sources: the Police, the Courts and the Prison. The tables in the report are organized in five sections: The first section, “Serious Offences”, covers all serious offences reported to the Police. It is based on individual returns of offences known to the Police during the year. The basic statistical unit is the offence recorded. The second section “Adult Criminality” deals with all adults proceeded against on a charge for a serious offence. It is based on individual returns submitted by the Police whenever an adult is prosecuted. Here the basic statistical unit is the “occasion” on which proceedings against a person are completed. The term “adult” refers to persons aged 16 years and over. The third section “Juvenile Delinquency” covers all juveniles involved in the commission of offences, both serious and minor. It is based on individual returns submitted by the Police whenever a juvenile is suspected of being involved in an offence. The fourth section “Judicial Statistics” deals with criminal judicial statistics. It is based on annual returns of criminal proceedings submitted at the end of the year by the District Courts, the Assize Courts and the martial Courts. It covers both juvenile and adult offenders. The basic statistical unit is, as in the two above-mentioned sections, the “occasion” on which proceedings against a person are completed.
Accuracy
Good. The data can be said to be very accurate to the extent that the codified questionnaires are correctly filled out by the Police. There are three codified questionnaires that must be filled out by the Police: one for the offence, and two for the offender (adult offender and juvenile offender). If the case involves more than one offender then one questionnaire must be filled out for each offender separately. This means that for each offence multiple questionnaires may need to filled out. At the moment all the questionnaires are filled out by hand in the police precincts and sent to the Police Headquarters. From the Police headquarters, the questionnaires are sent to the Statistical Services for data entry and analysis. The data is then put through multiple validation and consistency checks. The main limitation is that the collection of data is dependent on the hand written reports and is subject to human error. However, according to the Statistical Services, if the information is not satisfactory (incomplete or inconsistent) their officers will visit the Police Headquarters to gather the complete data with the assistance of the Police officers.
Reliability
Good
Timeliness
Limitations. Crime Statistics are usually made publicly available within two years of the phenomenon they describe. This gap is mainly due to the fact that the process is extremely time-consuming. Data is gathered manually by the Police in codified questionnaires and not electronically. The number of questionnaires received by the Statistical Services may reach 14-15000 questionnaires per year, which must then be entered into an electronic database, analysed, and then undergo various consistency and validation checks.
Comparability
- Geographical
- Over time
- None
Current developments
The collection of data by the Police in electronic format for the variables needed is a development that has been under discussion for some years. At the moment the Police do not have the necessary infrastructure to collect the necessary data for each offence and make the necessary consistency and validation checks. Multiple tailored programmes would need to be developed for this purpose.