Paraguay is preparing to carry out its 2019 Crime Victimization Survey

On May 20-24, the Center of Excellence for Statistical Information on Government, Crime, Victimization and Justice (CoE) carried out a technical visit in the city of Asunción, Paraguay. The visit is part of the Integrated Citizen Security Management project, carried out by the Ministry of the Interior (MDI in Spanish) and financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where one of its evaluation products is a Crime Victimization Survey, which will be implemented this year in the country. This statistical exercise will be implemented with the technical support of the General Directorate of Statistics, Surveys and Censuses (DGEEC in Spanish).

The purpose of the CoE visit was to review the proposed methodology for the implementation of the 2019 Crime Victimization Survey and provide recommendations in line with the international standards embodied in the Manual on Victimization Surveys and the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The 2019 Crime Victimization Survey is aligned with the Latin America and the Caribbean Crime Victimization Survey Initiative (LACSI). The sample consists of 7,000 dwellings belonging to selected police stations in the city of Asunción and the Central Department.

UNODC recognizes the efforts of Paraguay to carry out this statistical exercise as the first step for a next exercise with national representativeness. This would allow Paraguay to generate information for the reporting of 4 indicators of the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Technical guidance was also provided to the MDI National Observatory on Citizen Security and Coexistence – a specialized body that is responsible for the analysis of data on violence and crime in Paraguay – in its process of adopting the ICCS in its new system for collecting National Police reports through the Marandú System.

During the days of the technical visit, the importance of developing a statistical culture in Paraguay was highlighted, in order to make more informed public policy decisions with more efficient results in crime prevention and citizen security.