1. Marleen De Smedt Geoffrey Thomas Cynthia Tavares
Eurostat work programme on Crime, Criminal Justice & Victimisation Statistics
Marleen De Smedt
Geoffrey Thomas
Cynthia Tavares
7 – 8 February 2008

2. Crime, Criminal Justice & Victimisation
Political framework
Community Statistical Work Programmes
Eurostat Working Group
Statistics on Crime, Criminal Justice & Victimisation
EU Victimisation Survey module
7 – 8 February 2008

3. Political framework
Commission Communication on Developing a comprehensive and coherent EU strategy to measure crime and criminal justice: An EU Action Plan
Commission Decision setting up a group of experts on the policy needs for data on crime and criminal justice
7 – 8 February 2008

4. Annual statistical work programme 2007
Security and freedom - priorities
“Ensuring security and justice and managing modern risks require an EU dimension for it to be effective. In 2005, the Hague Programme mapped out how to take forward freedom, security and justice policies in Europe in …”
Among the main statistical priorities for 2007 are:
further development of statistics on crime, victimisation and criminal justice.
Demographic & Social Statistics (chapter)
“Statistics on crime, victimisation and criminal justice will be further developed, in accordance with the Action Plan in the Commission Communication (COM (2006) 437 final) on developing a comprehensive and coherent EU strategy to measure crime and criminal justice. Actions will inter alia include improving comparability of data from victimisation surveys and developing comparable data on crime and criminal justice.”
7 – 8 February 2008

5. Annual statistical work programme 2007
Elaboration of Key Priority
Work will continue on the development of a system of statistics on crime, victimisation and criminal justice in line with the strategy set out in 2006 in the Commission Communication Developing a comprehensive and coherent EU strategy to measure crime and criminal justice: An EU Action Plan
The data collection initiated in 2006 will be repeated, improved and extended to include policy relevant data, including 2005 data. Metadata and background and contextual variables will progressively be included and types of organised crime covered as well as policy relevant data on criminal justice measures.
Efforts will be made to evaluate and improve the quality of these data by means of specific studies of selected crime types. A proposal will be made for a European survey module on victimisation and testing of this will be initiated in collaboration with the Member States.
7 – 8 February 2008

6. Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012
Adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council on 11 December 2007
Legal framework
“Statistics on migration and asylum, and on crime and criminal justice will develop to meet the evolving needs for statistics to support the Commission's Action Plan to implement the Hague programme on Justice, Freedom and Security issues. This Action Plan includes proposals for …… strengthening security through common action against crime, particularly organised crime…. These developments will begin before 2008 but will continue throughout and beyond the lifetime of this statistical programme.”
7 – 8 February 2008

7. Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012
Current situation
… The potential in the field of crime statistics will be further explored in accordance with the EU Action Plan 2006 to 2010 on developing a coherent and comprehensive framework to measure crime and criminal justice. The feasibility and advisability of introducing a legal basis for these statistics will be explored.
In recognition of the wide differences in national administrative and statistical systems for …crime and criminal justice, measures to improve the comparability of statistics will concentrate on the harmonisation of statistical outputs rather than on the introduction of common data sources and procedures. However, in some cases (such as for statistics on organised crime) it may be necessary to develop new data sources.
Main initiatives
… the current research being carried out into the potential for Community statistics on crime (including organised crime), victimisation and criminal justice will be continued.
7 – 8 February 2008

8. Annual statistical work programme 2008
Security and freedom
The Hague Programme (2005–2009) is the basis for strengthening cooperation to promote freedom, security and justice in the EU. To this end, further action will be taken to fight organised crime and terrorism. The Commission will also propose further measures to promote the safety and health of EU citizens,…... Eurostat will respond to these demands as follows:
Statistics on crime, victimisation and criminal justice will be further developed — in cooperation with other Commission services, the relevant Community agencies and international organisations —, thus improving comparability and the use of administrative records.
7 – 8 February 2008

9. Annual statistical work programme 2008
In accordance with the Commission’s Action Plan on measuring crime and criminal justice, statistical activities will include improving the comparability of data from victimisation surveys and from administrative records. Moreover, the collection of Community crime statistics will be further developed, as appropriate and where possible, to provide contextual information relating to the gender and age of the victim/offender, and where and when the crime was committed.
7 – 8 February 2008

10. Annual statistical work programme 2008
Key Priorities 2008
Work will continue on implementing the EU Action Plan to develop a system of European statistics on crime and criminal justice.
The existing data collection will be extended up to the reference year 2006 and associated metadata will be progressively developed. Specific studies of selected crime types will be launched as a guide to assessing — and where possible improving — the comparability of national data.
The ongoing activities of the Working Group on Statistics on Crime and Criminal Justice will be coordinated with the development of indicators by the DG JLS Expert Group.
The output of the Expert Group will be examined with a view to identifying methodologies for further statistical collections.
A European survey module on victimisation — developed by Eurostat in 2007 — will be translated and tested in Member States and the groundwork laid for providing recommendations concerning the implementation of such a survey module as provided for under the Action Plan.
7 – 8 February 2008

11. Annual statistical work programme 2008
Objectives 2008
Ongoing work
Extend the collection of administrative data and metadata from Member States, such as on police-recorded crime, police numbers and prison populations, up to reference year 2006, and ensure proper dissemination
Evaluate and improve the quality of available data on crime and criminal justice through specific studies of selected crime types (such as homicide and car theft) in conjunction with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Develop the implementation of metadata
Follow up activities of the DG JLS Expert Group on the development of indicators on crime and criminal justice
New work
Further develop a survey module on crime victimisation in cooperation with UNECE and UNODC. Begin translation and testing of the module in Member States
Extend data and metadata and improve definitional methodology, in line with proposals from the DG JLS Expert Group
7 – 8 February 2008

12. Annual statistical work programme 2008
Actions that will simplify work or reduce the burden on member states and/or respondents
Feasibility studies will be carried out for a joint data collection on crime statistics with UNODC. If the results are positive, this will result in one single data delivery per year to Eurostat and UNODC.
Note
Part of the Tenth United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems is being conducted in partnership with Eurostat. This part (an Annex) relates to supplementary information on homicides and thefts of motor vehicles.
The UN questionnaire was distributed by the UN through the Permanent Missions to the United Nations in summer The National Statistical Offices and members of this Working Group were put in copy.
The deadline for submission of the questionnaire was 31 January 2008.
7 – 8 February 2008

13. Eurostat Working Group & Task Forces
Working Group first met 1 – 2 March 2007; this is the second meeting 7 – 8 February 2008
EU-27 Member States, EU candidate countries, EU potential candidate countries, EFTA/EEA countries, international organisations, experts
Task Force on victimisation met 28 – 29 June 2007; next meeting 6 – 7 November 2008
Proposed Task Force on “Crime data availability”; first meeting 5 – 6 June 2008
Regular reports to annual meeting of Directors of Social Statistics next meeting 17 – 18 September 2008
7 – 8 February 2008

14. Mandate of the Eurostat Working Group
To help ensure the effective implementation within the Community Statistical Programme of the EU Action Plan on developing a comprehensive and coherent strategy to measure crime and criminal justice ...
To examine the indicators and tools proposed by the Expert Group … and to identify approaches for statistical data collections required to provide indicators and tools under the Action Plan
To prepare methodological approaches, to discuss guidelines … and monitor the collection of statistical data …
To report to the Directors of Social Statistics on the implementation of the Action Plan …
To identify specific tasks within the European Statistical System relevant to the Action Plan for delegation to task forces …
To serve as a forum of information within the European Statistical System concerning relevant statistical research and development activities …
7 – 8 February 2008

15. Statistics on Crime, Criminal Justice & Victimisation
Crime & Criminal Justice (presentation later)
Current statistical data and publication
New statistical data collections
Ongoing collection
Future collection to meet policy needs
EU Victimisation Survey module (presentation later)
development of the module
procedure for testing and translation
7 – 8 February 2008