Barbados embraces UNODC international standards to develop its Crime Victimization Survey

The week of July 1 to 5, the team of the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence for Statistical Information on Government, Public Safety, Victimization and Justice (CoE) visited the city of Bridgetown in Barbados to provide a Course on Victimization Surveys. It consisted of 10 modules, and its objective was to present the best international standards for the implementation of a Crime Victimization Survey – according to the Manual for Victimization Surveys (UNODC, 2010) and the International Classification of Crimes for Statistical Purposes (UNODC, 2015) – to meet the information needs of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (especially 4 indicators of SDG16: 16.1.3, 16.1.4, 16.3.1 and 16.5.1).

Special emphasis was placed on presenting UNODC’s Latin America and the Caribbean Crime Victimization Survey (LACSI) Initiative, which promotes a regional questionnaire based on the aforementioned standards. Its goal is to help produce comparable information at a global level which could serve as a national input to design evidence-based policies with solid, reliable and quality information.

A total of 32 people participated from different institutions such as the Barbados Statistical Office (BSS), the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit (CJRPU), the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF), Prisons (HMP), the Probation Department (PD), the Office of Gender Affairs, the National Council on Substance Abuse, as well as research professionals.

UNODC offers technical assistance to the statistical and/or crime prevention institutions of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as other regions of the world. For more information, you can contact us through our email.