1. STUDY TO ASSESS THE SCOPE OF AND COLLECT AVAILABLE STATISTICS AND META-DATA ON FIVE CRIME TYPES AND PROPOSE HARMONISED DEFINITIONS AND COLLECTION PROCEDURES FOR THESE TYPES OF CRIME FOR THE EU MEMBER STATES AND THE ACCEDING COUNTRIES
A Study financed by the European Commission – DG JLS
A presentation by
ERNESTO U. SAVONA and BARBARA VETTORI
for the meeting of the Task Force “Statistics on crime, victimisation and criminal justice”
Luxembourg, 2-3 March 2006

2. BACKGROUND
Background
The need for harmonised definitions of crimes and data collection procedures has been remarked upon in a variety of European acts:
article 30 2d) of the Treaty on European Union
Council Action Plan of 27 March 2000 'The Prevention and Control of Organised Crime: a European Union Strategy for the Beginning of the New Millennium‘, chapter 2.1 (on Strengthening the collection and analysis of data on organised crime)
Dublin Declaration, November 2003
Assessment of the Tampere Programme, 2004
Action Plan implementing the Hague Programme, June 2005

3. International Crime Victimisation survey (ICVS) Eurobarometer survey
Main initiatives promoted to date to present comparable information on crime and criminal justice statistics in Europe:
International Crime Victimisation survey (ICVS)
Eurobarometer survey
Interpol compilation of police recorded crime data
UN Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems
European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics Project
International comparisons of criminal justice statistics, Home Office
European Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN)
Background

4. AIM & OBJECTIVES
The study aims at contributing to the development of statistics on crime and criminal justice, which are comparable over time and across countries in the EU.
In order to reach this aim, the Study sets itself two objectives:
1. to collect data on five specified crime types, and relevant meta-data and highlight similarities and differences in the way the Member States have defined and collected the statistics;
2. to propose, on the basis of an analysis of the collected meta-data, harmonised definitions and collection procedures for these types of crime.
Aim & objectives

5. THE FIVE CRIME TYPES
The focus of the Study is on five crime types that have not received much attention in previous initiatives, i.e.:
corruption;
fraud, excluding that affecting the financial interests of the European Communities;
illicit trafficking in cultural goods, including antiques and works of art;
counterfeiting and piracy of products;
the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography.
Aim & objectives

6. ACTIVITIES TO BE UNDERTAKEN Activities to be undertaken
To achieve objective 1:
1.1 Elaboration of a common matrix for the collection of data on five specified crime types, and relevant meta-data
1.2 Collection of the most recent data gathered on the five specified crime types in the 27 countries covered by the study, and of relevant meta-data, by A) reviewing relevant literature and B) administering a questionnaire to a national contact point
1.3 Writing up of 27 country profiles, presenting and analysing the most recent statistics collected in each country on the five specified crime types, as well as relevant meta-data
1.4 Highlighting similarities and differences in the way the 27 countries define and collect the statistics and representing these graphically in an excel table
Activities to be undertaken

7. ACTIVITIES TO BE UNDERTAKEN Activities to be undertaken
To achieve objective 2:
2.1 Proposing harmonised definitions for each of the specified five crime types and preliminarily testing their feasibility
2.2 Proposing harmonised data collection procedures for each of the specified five crime types and preliminarily testing their feasibility
Activities to be undertaken

8. STUDY TO ASSESS THE SCOPE OF AND COLLECT AVAILABLE STATISTICS AND META-DATA ON FIVE CRIME TYPES AND PROPOSE HARMONISED DEFINITIONS AND COLLECTION PROCEDURES FOR THESE TYPES OF CRIME FOR THE EU MEMBER STATES AND THE ACCEDING COUNTRIES
A Study financed by the European Commission – DG JLS
A presentation by
ERNESTO U. SAVONA and BARBARA VETTORI
for the meeting of the Task Force “Statistics on crime, victimisation and criminal justice”
Luxembourg, 2-3 March 2006