Data collection

Cynthia Tavares

Task Force meetingLuxembourg, 2- 3 March 2006

Data collection

• Data collection – background, coverage & methodology

• Response to Eurostat’s request• Overview of the data received• Quality issues & possibilities for

improvement• Future steps (publications etc.)

Background• Task Force met in May/June 2005 to discuss the items

to be collected– Annex 2 of the working paper for that meeting has a list of the

agreed items • European Director’s of Social Statistics met in

September 2005– Data to be collected from all EU Member States & EFTA

countries on• Crimes recorded by the police• Number of police officers• Prison population• Survey data (from ICVS or national surveys – in the future)

• External company selected (by call for tender) to assist Eurostat in the data collection, analysis & dissemination

Crimes recorded

• Crimes recorded by the police– Total crime– Homicide – country & city– Violent crime– Robbery– Domestic burglary– Motor vehicle theft– Drugs trafficking

Methodology• Member States, EFTA/EEA, EU acceding and candidate

countries asked to nominate a contact point• Eurostat wrote to contact points in November 2005

asking them to provide crime statistics for their country• Response requested by January 2006• Information received - checked and edited by Eurostat• Spreadsheets to be returned to countries for corrections

& comments• All processes will adhere to the European Statistics

Code of Practice

Constructing Eurostat’s database

• Eurostat obtained existing international data from UK Home Office

• Eurostat’s contact points provided with tables for each offence – standard definition – opportunity for footnotes

• Data up to 2004 requested• Reminder sent in January• 21 Member States, 1 EFTA/EEA, 1 Acceding &

1 Candidate country have responded with data• Information from various sources put together• Excel file produced – see handout

Information currently available• Countries

– All EU– EFTA/EEA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland)– Acceding countries (Bulgaria, Romania)– Candidate countries (Turkey, Croatia, TFYR of Macedonia)– Potential candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina,

Serbia & Montenegro)– Other countries (Australia, Canada, Japan, USA ... & others)

• Time series– 50 years data available for total crime– 10 years data or more readily available for most offences– Footnotes indicate break in series due to changes in the law or

statistical routines

Information to be held in Eurostat’s database

• Countries – All EU– EFTA/EEA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland)– Acceding countries (Bulgaria, Romania)– Candidate countries (Turkey, Croatia, TFYR of Macedonia)– Potential candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina,

Serbia & Montenegro)– Other countries (Australia, Canada, Japan, USA ... & others)

• Time series– 50 years data for total crime– 10 years data for most offences– Footnotes

Checks performed• Reliability checks

– Basic arithmetical accuracy– Examination of unexplained fluctuations from year to

year• Cross-checks between different sources

– Eurostat response– National websites– European Sourcebook– UK Home Office– Council of Europe– United Nations

Problems encountered• Data

– Attempting to put together data from different sources– Figures differ between published sources although

definition appears similar– Large, unexplained variation in crime levels from year

to year– Needs careful checking along with footnotes– Problems calculating figure for “violent crime”– Asked for data on “crimes recorded by the police” –

sometimes gendarmerie figures not included• Go to Notes

Contact points

• Contact points– Some Eurostat contact points have not yet

provided data– No nominated contact points for others– Some contact points unable to help

Collection & checking continues

• Draft tables to be sent to– Eurostat nominated contact points– Suggest contact points work together with

other experts to improve comparability• Response requested by end April 2006

– Check the data– Fill in the gaps, send 2005 data if available– Check the footnotes carefully

Preparation of final tables

• Cross checking with other sources, as before

• Further contact with countries to resolve queries

• Figures for specific offences may be excluded if quality is too poor

• Tables returned to contact points for final checking

Publication of the data

• Information on Eurostat’s website– Public– Free of charge

• Currently considering the best way to do this– Important to manage all the meta data collected– Pre-set tables?– Self-designed tables?– Maps?

• Suggestions welcome

Eurostat’s website

Publication of summary tables

• Statistics in Focus– Fixed length – fixed format - 8 pages – but

possible to have more than one edition• Chart on “Statistics of the week” on the

Website• Suggestions - what could be included in

these publications?

Proposed timetable for work

• Nov 2005 – Jan 2006: initial data request• Feb 2006: checking data• Mar 2006: 1st draft tables to contact points• Mar – May 06: checking data• June 06: 2nd draft tables to contact points• Aug 06: preparation of “Statistics in Focus”• Oct 06: Publication of data

Future studies

• To consider– How might comparability be improved?– Look at particular offences in detail? Which

ones?• Need your advice

Possible approach

• Using motor vehicle theft as an example– Make a table of the definition– Find out which statistics are collected by

countries– Note the point of recording– See where countries converge in their

definition– Propose a definition for the Eurostat collection

• Check other information sources

another possibility

• Homicide– Look in detail– Compare data from other sources – Interpol,

UN, WHO• Vast differences for some countries