Prosecution Criminal Court Statistics-Convicted (Germans and Foreigners, by type of offence and age and by type of decision -e.g. acquittal , criminal conviction, sentence-)since 2007)
Issues in terms of retrieving raw data
Draw also on survey data
Used as indicator
Supports planning of criminal and penal policy at national and regional level; supports development of related legislation used by administration and politicians at national, increasingly also international, level. E.g. national and regional agencies responsible for justice. Also: Council of Europe, Eurostat, UN which work on a system of indicators for crime and criminal justice. Also used by science/academia, judicial practitioners, educational facilities, information provider and media as well as interested citizens
Data available on
Perpetrator
Background information
- Age
- Sex
- Nationality
- ID
- Name
- Ethnicity
- Marital status
- Dependants
Incident
Incident
Offender data: age, gender, nationality, type of offence, type of ruling, type of sentence, previous conviction, custody, prosecution data
Criminal statistics on sexual violence
Criminal statistical data included
Characteristics
Reference period
Frequency of updating
Validation
Compilation
Data from electronic and paper form administrative data. Compilation follows harmonised standards and is carried out by the statistical offices of the states. Afterwards, the National Statistical Office summarises these based on § 3 Abs. 3 BStatG vom 22.01.1987 (BGBl. I S. 462). This happens usually one month after a case has been closed.
Quality assurance process
In particular, the data on convicts, which are registered at the Federal Central Registry in parallel, are being checked regularly and thoroughly by the responsible units within the judiciary. Moreover, the statistics have to undergo routinely checks by the Länder. They are made plausible with great effort internally and triangulated against external data. Potential irregularities are clarified by further inquiries on behalf of the Länder statistical offices with the administrative reporting units. Nevertheless, individual errors or incorrect indications cannot be ruled out. The quality of data is weaker for particular parts of the data which are not also used by administration for their other purposes than compiling statistics. Moreover, changes in the data collection catalogue can create a period of transition in which information on the new/changed characteristics are not collected completely and adequately. Errors might occur both at data collection stage as well as when exporting data from administrative programmes to statistical offices. Known errors are indicated in the respective publications. No systematic fallacies flaws are known of. There are no ongoing revisions of the statistics. Rather, in case of grave mistakes, a new compilation of the statistics is created. If the wrong data had already been published, the German Statistical Office would publish a correction.
Accuracy
Good. Strengths: Results good to very good.
Reliability
No information available
Timeliness
Good. National Statistical Office publishes data end of October for the previous year (or with a delay of up to 11 months). At regional/Länder level, results (on the previous year - under no. B VI 1) are usually available from the second quarter onwards. In the past it did happen that due to limited capacity in some Länder, the publication of results at national level was delayed.
Comparability
- Geographical
- Over time
- None
Over time. Systematics of data have not changed since 1953. Between 1998 and 2005 there were misrepresentations of the number of convicts and sentenced. This was due to the introduction of automatic procedures at courts and public prosecutor's offices. Data on East Germany only included from 2007 onwards.
Current developments
Changes such as additional variables in the statistics are agreed upon by the committees within the justice administration of the states. The National Statistical Office coordinates the discussions within the statistical offices of the states.
External link
No information available