Expert Group Meeting on the Scope and Content of Social Statistics

Review of papers on Crime and Justice Statistics

Country papers-: Italy and Ireland

Jogeswar Dash

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, India

ESA/STAT/AC.161/Cj.1

Crime statistics- New Challenges

• Crime is an area of increasing concern all over the world.

• Criminals adopt new techniques and methodologies, new networks that transcend national boundaries

• Unleashing of the forces of globalization and advent of cyber space has added new dimension to crime, extremist violence and organized crime

What statistics can do

• Data / statistics should be capable of providing inputs for policy and strategies to tackle new and emerging forms of crimes

• Special efforts to be channelized towards protection of the vulnerable and weaker sections of the societies- women and children

Crime statistics- sources

Administrative statistics( police, courts, jails etc) and sample surveys.

Real criminality: whole crime set in a specific time and place regardless of police reporting or inquiries or final sentence

Reported criminality: Administrative data Hidden Criminality:Not reported and unknown(may

be known also) to social control agencies. Can be estimated through sample surveys

Hidden Crime ( Domestic Crime)

• the term domestic crime referred includes crime against women and girls by an intimate partner and by family members irrespective of crime committed within or beyond boundaries of the home.

• crime that occurs within the family or within the home• tolerated in many contexts and goes unnoticed. • only a small number of crime committed against women

are covered under legal provisions .• despite the universal awareness of the problem, there is

little rigorous data to establish prevalence and to monitor trends

Case of Italy

• victimization survey and violence against women survey– Italy

• 70 % hidden criminality, 7% of rape cases are reported

• Categories of Crime: against house holds, moral, against property, against state, social institutions, public order, economy, public faith, organized crime

Case of Italy

• New Statistics to monitor political needs and social changes: Bank card cloning, internet theft and fraud, harassment at work places

• UNECE-UNODC task force is preparing a manual on victimization survey

• EUROSTAT is testing a European module with a core set of Questions.

Case of Ireland

• CSO produces Recorded Crime Statistics based on Administrative data , quarterly and annually

• CSO conducts Crime and Victimization surveys as a module in LF survey- over 50 questions at household level and individual level (sexual assaults & domestic violence are not included)

Case of Ireland Classification of crimes

• New classification introduced in April 2008

• Has 3 levels of coding, 16 offence groups and over 200 criminal incident types

• Uses Social rather than Legal model of crime

• Data can be provided at 2, 3 or 4 levels

Case of Ireland Counting Rules

• Primary offence Rule: Where two or more criminal offences are disclosed in a single episode it nis the primary offence that is counted

• One offence counts per victim: one offence conts per victim involved with exceptions of cheque/ credit card fraud and burglary

• A continuous series of offences against the same victim involving the same offender counts as one offence

Case of Ireland Crime related statistics and

agencies• Irish Curt Service: statistics relating to courts

system based on administrative records• Irish Prison Service: Statistics Relating to prisons • Directorate of Public prosecutions:• National Crime council And Rape Crisis Centres :

Crime and Justice statistics and related Research findings.

Issues for Discussion

• ISTAT takes care of the quality of Statistics produced by Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior. The issue is how the quality is judged by ISTAT- This may be a common issue for Most of the Countries

• UNSD may take up a new work of harmonization, guidelines, designing of frame work for crime statistics, indicators needed, crimes to be studied etc.

Issues for Discussion

• Sample survey: what should be the FRAME

• Whether sample space excludes the Administrative Record crimes ?

• What should be counted – Crimes or Criminals?

Issues for Discussion

• Accidental deaths, Suicides are factors for premature end to life. Data relating to parameters like causative factors, age group of the victims are useful to understand the problems

• Disposal of Crime: Criminal justice system to be geared to meet the situation. Statistics relating to justice system: Number of courts, judges, disposal rates, pending cases etc.

Issues for Discussion

• Prison Statistics: Concept of prison is undergoing change and rights of prisoners are in focus today. Prison is not a place punishment, but for reforms, rehabilitation.

• Prison population• Occupancy rate/ over crowding• Convicts and under-trials,• Women in jail etc.

Crime against Women and Children

• Crime is a behavioral, emotional, psychological, physical or sexual abuse that one person uses in order to control another.

• Various kinds of crimes against women recordable under law are– eve-teasing, molestation, – bigamy, fraudulent marriage,– adultery and enticement of married women,– abduction and kidnapping, – rape, harassment to women at working place, – wife beating, dowry death, – female child abuse and abuse of elderly female

Crime against Women and Children

• To identify the key problem use additional data sources such as socio-economic background

• study the different stages of life where abuse takes place and its implications.– childhood

• a girl may be the target of sex-selective abortion, • enforced malnutrition, • lack of access to medical care and education,• bonded labour, • early marriage, and forced prostitution.

Crime against Women and Children

– Adult life • raped and even murdered at the hands of intimate

partners.• forced pregnancy, • abortion, • harmful practices such as sati (the burning of a

widow on the funeral pyre of her husband), • killings in the name of honour, • dowry-related crime. • psychological abuse