The Metropolitan District of Quito brings together experts to improve its 2021 Crime Victimization Study

On Monday, November 15, staff from the Center of Excellence in Statistical Information on Government, Crime, Victimization and Justice participated in the “International Forum for updating and reviewing the questionnaire on victimization and perception of insecurity 2021”, organized by the Metropolitan Observatory of Citizen Security of the Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ), of the General Secretary of Security and Governance of Ecuador.

The objective of this forum was for experts from the national and international community to contribute with their experience to provide comments on the questionnaire of the Victimization Study and Perception of Insecurity (EVPI) 2021 in the Metropolitan District of Quito. EVPI has been carried out in the DMQ on 9 occasions since 2008, generating indicators at the local level.

During its intervention, the Center of Excellence stressed the importance of adjusting the instrument to adopt United Nations international standards generated and promoted by UNODC regarding the implementation of a Crime Victimization Survey, such as the Latin America and the Caribbean Crime Victimization Survey Initiative (LACSI), which promotes a regional questionnaire based in the International Classification of Crimes for Statistical Purposes (UNODC; 2015) and the guidelines of the Manual on Victimization Surveys (UNECE, UNODC; 2010). Among other institutions, the Organization of American States (OAS), as a member of the LACSI Working Group, also stressed the importance of adjusting EVIP to this Initiative.

Adopting LACSI would mean that Ecuador could generate quality, reliable, timely and comparable statistical information to monitor to monitor the progress of 5 indicators of the 2030 Agenda (11.7.2, 16.1.3, 16.1.4, 16.3.1, 16.5. 1) contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

The Center of Excellence is available to provide guidance and technical assistance to the Member States of the region to implement Victimization Surveys, to understand the crime phenomenon in greater depth to take public policy decisions more effective and evidence-based to leave no one behind.