The Centres of Excellence introduce the modernization of crime statistics

Kyoto (Japan) Virtual, 12 March 2021. Since 1955, the United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, has been held every 5 years as the largest platform for Member States, International Organizations (IGOs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and experts to discuss and develop the field of crime and criminal justice. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 Congress was postponed to 7-12 March 2021 and was held in hybrid format from Kyoto, Japan. This, the 14th Congress which included 5600 registered participants representing 152 Member States, 37 IGOs and 114 NGOs.

Of the 150 ancillary meetings held over the 5-day event, the UNODC Centres of Excellence (CoE) partnered to discuss the importance of crime statistics in the session “Modernizing Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics”, 12 March.

The session was moderated by Ms. Angela Me, Chief, Research and Trend Analysis Branch, UNODC with presentations from Ms. Salomé Flores Sierra, Coordinator, UNODC-INEGI CoE and Mr. Matthew Harris-Williams, Researcher, UNODC-KOSTAT CoE. The presentations gave examples of CoE support using international standards in crime data collection for evidence-based policymaking and the best practice of Member States in the development of administrative crime records, crime victimization surveys and the use of big data and other new technologies. Latin America and Caribbean examples ranged from the conducting Local Safety Audits in Mexico and Asia and the Pacific examples included best practice in administrative systems from Australia and Kazakhstan and the experimental use of Big Data for SDG16 Indicators in Philippines.

At the conclusion of the Congress, Member States drafted the Kyoto Declaration (A/CONF.234/L.6) further contributing to increasing the prioritization of crime statistics for evidence-based crime prevention strategies. The declaration included:

“22. Enhance evidence-based crime prevention strategies through the collection and analysis of data using systematic and coherent criteria, bearing in mind the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes, and evaluate the effectiveness of such strategies;

 23. Improve the quality and availability of data on crime trends, considering the development of statistical indicators, and share such data, on a voluntary basis, to strengthen our capacity to better understand global crime trends and improve the effectiveness of strategies to prevent and combat crime.”

With the prioritization of this important field, the CoEs will continue to develop the technical capacity of Member States to produce, collect, analyse and disseminate high-quality crime statistics

Further information on the UNODC-KOSTAT CoE can be found here, Twitter @CoE_UNODC and Facebook @UNODC.KOSTAT.CoE. Further information of the UNODC-INEGI CoE can be found here, Twitter @CdE_UNODC and Facebook @CdE.Unodc.Inegi.