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Bosnia CARDS Statistical Training
Prosecution / Courts Session 2, November 22nd
Overview of the Criminal Justice System and Statistics - Introduction
With funding from the European Union
DEVELOPMENT OF MONITORING INSTRUMENTS FOR JUDICIAL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT INSTITUTIONS IN THE WESTERN BALKANS 2009-2011 Phase three – Training
Context
The first step in organizing statistics is to identify the organizational structure (of both the Criminal Justice System and the Statistics) and to identify the use and users of the statistics: this is more complex in BiH because of the different entities as well as the different justice agencies.
Role and organization of Prosecution and Courts
• This has a large influence on the statistics.• It becomes very clear when looking at
different jurisdictions• Three examples:
– Germany – The Netherlands (both with string prosecution
agencies like BiH) and – England (with very recent prosecution system
with fewer powers and low public recognition)
Germany and the Netherlands
Recorded Suspected offenders
Prosecution decisions
‘Convicted’
Germany 7976 (100) 1067 (13)
The Neth 7663 (100) 960 (13)
England 11078(100) 612 (6)
• Year 2003, per 100,000 inhabitants
• ‘Convicted’ includes all case ending decisions where offender received a ‘penalty’ (e.g. Strafbefehl, Dutch ‘transactie’)
Germany and the Netherlands
Recorded Suspected offenders
Prosecution decisions
‘Convicted’
Germany 7976 (100) 2858 (36) 5784 (73) 1067 (13)
The Neth 7663 (100) 1797 (23) 1280 (17) 960 (13)
England 11078(100) 2525 (23) 1018(9) 874(8)
• Year 2003, per 100,000 inhabitants
• ‘Convicted’ includes case ending decisions where offender received a ‘penalty’ (Strafbefehl, Dutch ‘transactie’, English caution)
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Prosecutors per 100,000
Pro
se
cu
tio
ns
pe
r 1
00
,00
0
North/West
South
Central
East
USA
Belgium
Greece
Turkey Monaco
England & WalesFinland
Russia
Georgia
Kazak
hstan
Moldova
Belaru
s
Ukrain
eLith
uani
a
Latvia
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Prosecutors per 100,000
Pro
se
cu
tio
ns
pe
r 1
00
,00
0
North/West
South
Central
East
USA
Belgium
Greece
Turkey Monaco
England & WalesFinland
Russia
Georgia
Kazak
hstan
Moldova
Belaru
s
Ukrain
eLith
uani
a
Latvia
0
300
600
900
1200
1500
1800
0 3 6 9 12 15
Prosecutors per 100,000
Pro
se
cu
tio
ns
pe
r 1
00
,00
0
North/West
South
Central
East
Canada
Denmark
GermanyIcelandIreland
Luxembourg
the Netherlands
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Sweden
Croatia
Macedonia, FYR
Slovenia
Portugal
Italy
Cyprus
Malta
Albania
BulgariaRomania
Czech Republic
Hungary
Poland
Slovakia
Azerbaijan
Estonia
Kyrgyzstan
0
300
600
900
1200
1500
1800
0 3 6 9 12 15
Prosecutors per 100,000
Pro
se
cu
tio
ns
pe
r 1
00
,00
0
North/West
South
Central
East
Canada
Denmark
GermanyIcelandIreland
Luxembourg
the Netherlands
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Sweden
Croatia
Macedonia, FYR
Slovenia
Portugal
Italy
Cyprus
Malta
Albania
BulgariaRomania
Czech Republic
Hungary
Poland
Slovakia
Azerbaijan
Estonia
Kyrgyzstan
Role and organization of Prosecution and Courts
• Function/role can be different for different types of offences
• As a consequence organization of statistics can be different.
• The Neth: three types: Administrative offences / misdemeanors / crimes
• England: Indictable/ summary offences
• BiH (discussion of offence structure)
Types of offences, England
• Legally: Offences are divided into indictable and summary:– Indictable must be sent directly to higher court– Summary can be dealt with by lower courts or
by the police ( fixed penalty or caution)
• However, in practice, both procedural law and statistics registration practices are thoroughly confused and the different crimes are difficult to distinguish
Misdemeanors
Crimes
Category A
Category B
Category C
Misdemeanors
Crimes
Category A
Category B
Category C
Almost all traffic offences: speeding,
traffic light etc.
These are handled administratively
Misdemeanors (admin)
Wet Mulderzaken
Misdemeanors
Crimes
Misdemeanors
(admin)
Category B
Category CAll crimes: all theft, all violent crime etc.
also some traffic offences (DUI)
Economical and environmental misdemeanors
‘Crimes’Rechtbankzaken
Misdemeanors
Crimes
Misdemeanors
(admin)
Category B
‘Crimes’
All other misdemeanors
(driving without insurance, being
drunk and disorderly etc.)
Misdemeanor (other)
Kantonzaken
Misdemeanors
Crimes
Misdemeanors
(admin)
Misdemeanors
(other)
‘Crimes’
0
2000000
4000000
6000000
8000000
10000000
12000000
Police input Offenders Prosecutioninput
Courts
C: Crimes
B: Misdemeanors (other)
A: Misdemeanors (admin)
Role and organization of Prosecution and Courts
• Function/role can be different for adults and juveniles and for serious/other crimes
• As a consequence organization of statistics can be different.
• The Neth: Hardly any differences• England: 1998-2012 special statistics for juveniles
but the YJB is to be abolished and statistics may become like the Netherlands ( eg same as adults)
• England: different statistics for types of court.• BiH (Discussion of role and organisation of the
courts)
Role and organization of Prosecution and Courts
• Does the Prosecution get their cases always and only from the police?
• Has the Prosecution Service monopoly in prosecuting cases?
• The Neth: also other investigative agencies. Prosecution Service has monopoly (Neth): High % (Eng)
• Bosnia (Discussion of prosecutor/court relationship)
Role and organization of Prosecution and Courts
• Can police/prosecution impose sanctions as well as the courts?
• In theory or in practice?• The Neth: Police only in theory but in practice
Prosecution can and does in a large number of cases.
• England: Police can caution and give fixed penalties, usually with no advice from prosecutor: prosecutor tries to give advice about cautioning but only in a small number of cases.
• Bosnia (Discussion of who can impose sanctions)
Role and organization of Prosecution and Courts
• Are cases with no offenders part of the workload of the prosecutor?
• The Neth: No• England: No• Bosnia (Discussion of ‘ no suspect cases))• Is there only one jurisdiction?• The Neth: Yes; Germany: No; UK: No• Bosnia: several entities
Role and organization of Prosecution and Courts
• Is there a centralized register of criminal records?
• The Neth: Yes.• England has a Police National Computer
which is used for investiogation but little used for Statistics
• Bosnia & Herzegovina (Discussion of centralised registers)
Organization of Statistics
• ‘Data Monitoring’ has three aspects:• Operational information
The actual data for handling a specific crime/case• Management Information
Data to monitor the performance of the organizations• Statistics
Data for research and Policy• Although, ideally, these will be feed from the same
source of data the use and the users are completely different
• I will talk about statistics, unless specifically mentioned otherwise
Organization of Statistics
• To improve the value of crime and justice statistics, there is a need for their collection, analysis and publication to be co-ordinated across agencies.
• If this is done common classifications, collection procedures and IT systems can be used
• Good statistical practice can be shared• Messages produced by the statistics can be shared between
agencies• There can be a common approach to analysis• There can be a common approach to publication, which will
enhance the usefulness of statistics and their existence can become more widely known to the public.
Possible role of the Central Statistics Office (CSO)
• The Central Statistical Office (CSO) is the place where statistical experience is concentrated in many countries.
• It therefore could have a central role in the development and the collection of crime and justice statistics
• The CSO can assist – To facilitate discussions on common issues– To share good practice between justice agencies– To develop statistical capacity in the different justice agencies
• If the CSO cannot undertake this role for any reason, then one of the agencies should take the lead, e.g. a statistical unit in the Ministry of Justice
Pros and cons of a Central Statistics Office (CSO)
• Advantages:– Uniformity– Efficiency– Seen as more independent– Statistics is their core bussiness– Linking with other statistics
• Disadvantages:– Timeliness– Level of detail– Knowledge of the Criminal Justice field
Need for a Crime and Justice Statistics Committee
• Discussions about common statistics issues should take place in a committee or similar forum
• All relevant crime and justice agencies should be represented on this forum
• The committee should be properly resourced and chaired at a high enough level for its conclusions to be taken seriously by senior management within the crime and justice agencies
• Its role should be closely defined and its progress managed by senior management
Suggestions for routine work of the statistics committee
• Committee should meet at least three times a year• Standing items should include reports from each agency of:
o Progress on developments in collecting statisticso Progress towards consistency of classificationso Progress on new analyses and publicationso Policy Uses made of statisticso Developments in infrastructure, including new members of staff,
improved training, new analysis, new IT.
• Minutes and papers of meetings should be placed on statistical web sites to encourage openness
Suggestions for less frequent activities of the statistics committee
• Conduct a survey of senior managers, to see what statistics would be useful for policy development but not yet available.
• Publicise the codes being used by various agencies to demonstrate differences and encourage harmonization.
• Invite a senior official, at Judge or Commissioner level to address the statistics committee on his views on statistics.
• Examine statistics on crime and justice from other countries should be examined to encourage the development of good practice.
• Co-operate with other countries with similar problems in the same region
Statistical Integrity
Statistics need to be fit for purpose: to have the followingcharacteristics to satisfy good Statistical Integrity: they need:
• to be collected at the appropriate frequency: eg every month• to be ready quickly, otherwise their value declines rapidly• to be internally consistent and to be consistent with previous
data. ( eg prosecution output should be consistent with courts input)
• Data collection procedures and revisions to these or to previous figures need to be open
• To be accessible to the public and the media.
Use and users of statistics
Crime data
• This can be used for different purposes: solving crimes (we know that it is always the husband), preventing crimes (locally as well as more general), policy making, budgetting, informing the general public etc.
Management information:
• Workload and resources in order to optimize processes
• examples– number of cases per staff member
– (Expected) input, by expected processing time
Users: managers of agencies, prosecution, courts
Use and users of statistics
Statistics (1), accountability: • General information mainly on number of cases / offenders• E.g.:
– Sanctions by crime type– Number of prosecutions / convictions by crime type
Users: parliament, media, international bodies, general public
Statistics (2), research:
• Specific information for criminal research and policy development
• E.g.:– Reoffending
– Development of crimes, by crime type
Users: policy advisers, researchers
Use and users of statistics
Some examples:
• Monitoring reoffending rates per offender group (needs data from all agencies to get An accurate system)
• Forecasting of prison capacity ( needs data from all agencies)
• Evaluation of policy measures ( Data needs will depend on policy being considered)
Architecture of statistics
Where do the data come from?
• Several possibilities:– Aggregate data / detailed data– (Partly) manual / completely automated– Direct access to administrative system / Periodic
or indirect access– Extracts / Change messages
Flow of data, the Netherlands
COMPAS:
Administrative system used in 19 PS offices
Information from appeal courts
Special interface for CBS Mgmt Info System
for 19 PS offices
Interface for
Criminal Record Register
CBS Statistics Mgmt Info System for
Central Prosecutor Office
Central
Criminal Record Register
OMDATA
(WODC)
OBJD
(WODC)
Crimes only Crimes and misdemeanors
Architecture of statistics
• Detailed data is to be preferred. Flexible, good for research. But there are privacy issues.
• Completely automated seems more cost effective. But my experience is that the quality is often less!
• Direct access is too heavy a burden on the primary administrative system. Also, the IT architecture is more complicated
With periodic or indirect access there are two possibilities:
• Once every month / week / … an extract is made from the primary system
• Every time something important happens with a case (input, prosecution
decision, court verdict, …) a record is written to a intermediate buffer.