1. Team Leader Crime Statistics
Eurostat Working group on Statistics on Crime and Criminal Justice 25 March The International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS)
Enrico Bisogno
Team Leader Crime Statistics
UNODC

2. Milestones of current work on ICCS
Joint UNODC/UNECE Task Force on crime classification set up in 2009 under the framework of the Conference of European Statisticians (CES)
In 2011, the TF presented the International Crime Classification Framework (ICCF), approved by CES in 2012
Primary unit of classification is the act or event which constitutes a criminal offence
The description of criminal acts is based on behaviours/events, not on legal provisions

3. Milestones of current work on ICCS (cont.)
Expert Group Meetings in October 2012 (Mexico City) and in February (Vienna)
In Feb the UN Statistical Commission endorsed the proposal and the plan to develop the ICCS (part of the ‘Roadmap to improve Crime Statistics’). The same plan endorsed also by UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (April 2013)

4. Principles for the ICCS
Exhaustiveness – events generally known to constitute offences in a significant number of countries
Structure – Reduced number of hierarchical levels and reasonable number of categories in first level
Mutual exclusivity – any crime assigned to one and only one category
Description – need to define descriptions of each crime act

5. Main criteria used for classifying crime acts
Policy relevance – maintenance of public welfare and safety, protection of property rights, protection of integrity of state, etc.
Target – the main entity against which the act is directed (person, object, animal, state, communal value or concept)
Seriousness – determined by harm/consequences for victims and community
State of mind of perpetrator – mens rea and motivation (e.g. intentional vs. non-intentional/ negligent)
Modus operandi – an act may be enabled by use of force, violence, intimidation, etc.
Moreover, a series of ´additional attributes´ was developed to further qualify and describe crimes (type of weapon used, organizational context, etc.)

6. The current structure of ICCS
11 Top-level categories :
Acts leading to death or intending to cause death
Acts causing harm or intending to cause harm to the person
Injurious acts of a sexual nature
Acts against property involving violence against a person
Acts against property only
Acts involving controlled psycho-active substances or other drugs 
Acts involving fraud, deception or corruption
Acts against public order or authority
Acts against public safety and state security
Acts against natural environment
Other criminal acts not elsewhere classified

7. Additional attributes
Disaggregating variables:
Event descriptions: Use of weapon, location, organised crime, attempted/completed
Victim descriptions: age, sex, age status
Perpetrator descriptions: ages, sex, age status, victim-perpetrator relationship

8. A special case: intentional homicide
Definition of intentional homicide: unlawful death inflicted upon a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury.
Treatment of specific categories of killings:
Death resulting from terrorist activities
Killings during civil unrest
Killing during conflicts but not directly associated with the conflict (eg killings of civilians)
Honour killing/Dowry related killing
Etc.

9. A special case: intentional homicide (cont.)
Classification of intentional homicide by ‘type’:
Homicide related to crime
organized crime
related to other crime (such as robbery)
Interpersonal homicide
by intimate partner/family member
community related
Socio-political homicide

10. The testing Three questionnaires:
ICCS testing: the objective is to assess to what extent data can be produced according to ICCS definitions and categories
Homicide testing: the goal is to assess which categories of killings are used to produce homicide data and the feasibility of 3 different homicide classifications
Accessibility of crime data: information on statistical infrastructure and production process on crime statistics

11. Next steps
Testing of draft international classification of crime in volunteer countries (March-April 2014)
Meeting of group of expert to review testing results and finalize ICCS (May )
July-September 2014: advanced draft sent for country consultation
November 2014: final version submitted to UN Statistical Commission
In parallel, development of Manual to implement ICCS (second half 2014)