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.