Centre of Excellence UNODC-INEGI engages with the Working Group to improve the measurement of homicides in Peru

October 26th.- The Centre of Excellence UNODC-INEGI participated in the inaugural meeting of the Working Group for the Evaluation and Improvement of the Homicide Rate Estimation in Peru. The session, facilitated by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI, for its Spanish acronym), was attended by a sizeable group of public agencies in the public security and justice fields, and gender equality public organizations. Some of these institutions were the Ministry of Justice, the Women’s Ministry, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Judiciary and the National Police.

During the meeting, the Centre of Excellence discussed the role of UNODC as the custodian agency of the 16.1.1 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicator on the number of victims of intentional homicide per 100,00 population by sex and age. The meeting also allowed the CoE to offer the Working Group members expertise in advising other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to improve the collection of homicide statistics. Moreover, the Centre of Excellence shared the essential elements of the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) as a framework that enables the harmonization and enhances the quality of criminal statistics, specifically regarding homicide data. Compared to other international methods for the estimation of homicides, the advantage of the ICCS framework is that it puts forward a reliable and consistent definition and provides the criteria to assess the official homicide statistics of any country in the world. Products such as the well-known Global Homicide Study employ such a framework. For Peru’s specific case, this measurement criteria represents a benchmark to evaluate the data currently being produced and identify areas for improvement.

The session marked the first step for the coordination between the major key players to enhance the Peruvian homicide rate estimations. By becoming a Working Group member, the Centre of Excellence contributes to consolidate a reliable and valid homicide rate. Having trustworthy statistical information is the keystone for the design of strategies that can reduce the homicide levels. The former will address existing challenges regarding the diverging figures on the number of homicides for a single year, depending on the institution collecting the data. Such a difference between sources implied a large operation from the statistical authority to validate the data. Additionally, the levels and trends in homicide data used to design public policies are different according to the official data source employed as reference.

The meeting also gave the Centre of Excellence a chance to liaison with the Women’s Ministry of Peru. In this regard, the CoE shared its ongoing work on the design of a measurement framework of femicide for statistical purposes. The Women’s Ministry represents a valuable ally for the consultation process that the Centre of Excellence is doing on this topic.

The Working Group for the Technical Improvement of the Homicide Rate Estimation agreed to continue holding regular meetings in the next weeks. The upcoming task is to go over the available information sources for the collection of homicides. The CoE will play a vital role in the evaluation of the quality attributes of these sources. The expectation is that this assessment will underpin the homicide rate estimation in Peru and enhance public policy aiming to reduce crime.
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