Adriana Oropeza, Coordinator of CoE, recalled the Guide helps countries in the region implement the UNODC’s “Guidelines for the production of statistical data by the police.” Six of the twelve dimensions from the Guidelines were used to identify the type of information available to the police. Human Resources, Criminal Acts, Arrests and Detentions, Seizures, Use of Force and Firearms, and Professional Conduct.

Adrián Franco, Vice President of INEGI, pointed out that “one of the advantages of this undertaking is the link between the police forces and the national statistical offices for the design and implementation of public security policies”. Pablo Villatoro, from the Statistics Division of the SCA-ECLAC, emphasized that it will also contribute to strengthening and improvement of police administrative records and thus “the availability of relevant and quality data so that the countries of the region can design and implement efficient and high-impact public policies on security”.

The Statistical Offices of Chile and Guatemala presented progress in data collection, while the National Police of Ecuador and the National Police of Peru presented case studies of police information systems in those countries.

We are grateful for the participation of Claudia González of the National Institute of Statistics of Chile, Yocelin Zamora of the National Institute of Statistics of Guatemala, Peter Abad of the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics of Peru, Captain Roger Chipa of the National Police of Peru, Mildred Martínez of the National Statistics Office of the Dominican Republic, Yasmin Quintero of the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Panama, and Lieutenant Brayan Pasquel de la Torre of the National Police of Ecuador.

La entrada Second Meeting of the SCA-ECLAC Working Group on the “Reference Guide to Police Administrative Records” aparece primero en Centro de Excelencia UNODC-INEGI.

Moderated by Lilibeth Cárdenas, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Women of Panama, the panel featured outstanding presentations that enriched the debate. Martha Delia Leiva, Manager of Social and Demographic Statistics of the National Institute of Statistics (INE) of Honduras, presented on the good practices and challenges of the National Specialized Survey on Violence against Women and Girls (ENESVMN). Carol Watson, social policy analyst and researcher at reThink Social Development in Jamaica, gave a virtual presentation on the guidelines for data management on violence against women and girls in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Evelin Elizabeth Ovalle, advisor to the Gender Unit of the National Institute of Statistics (INE) of Guatemala, provided a detailed overview of the indicators of the Household Quality and Welfare Survey, 2023.

During the panel, Teresa Guerra, Coordinator of UN Women’s Global Center of Excellence on Gender Statistics (CEEG), presented the Statistical framework for measuring the gender-related killing of women and girls. This framework provides a statistical definition of gender-related killing of women and girls, also known as femicide/feminicide, and seeks to harmonize and improve the collection and analysis of data on this phenomenon. The framework is currently being piloted in some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Afterwards, Adriana Oropeza, Coordinator of the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence for Statistical Information on Government, Public Security, Victimization and Justice, presented the preliminary results of the pilot in Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. She discussed the progress in the implementation of the framework, its characteristics and scope, and provided an overview of the progress achieved. The first phase of the pilot included visits to key institutions, such as the National Police, the Forensic Science Institutes, the Attorney General’s Office and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, among others, to assess how the variables collected are aligned with the framework. Also, practices that facilitate the implementation of the framework were discussed and variables not yet systematized in the participating countries were identified.

This panel represented a step forward in improving the collection and analysis of data on gender-related killings of women, supporting the development of more effective public policies based on a comprehensive perspective.

La entrada Panel at the XXV International Meeting on Gender Statistics Discusses Challenges in the Measurement of gender-based violence aparece primero en Centro de Excelencia UNODC-INEGI.

In accordance with the international recommendations of the United Nations and in particular of the UNODC in its Manual on Crime Victimization Surveys, it recommends – as far as possible – the collection of information by means of a face-to-face interview with the support of an electronic device (computer-assisted personal interview – CAPI, for its acronym in English). This technique has several advantages, among them (see section 4 of the LACSI Initiative Conceptual Framework):

• reduce the cost of printed material and personnel (typists and data entry clerks);
• reducing errors during the survey by applying validation guidelines in real time;
• the use of longer and more complex questionnaires;
• avoiding the loss of information by being able to back it up frequently; and
• ensuring the confidentiality of the information with encryption techniques.

Based on this recommendation, the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence developed the LACSI Questionnaire (version 2021) in electronic format using the World Bank’s free Survey Solutions platform. To access the electronic questionnaire, it is necessary to create an account on this platform (more information https://designer.mysurvey.solutions/identity/account/register).

As complementary support, the CoE developed an implementation guide to create a server on Google Cloud Platform (with the Docker system) to send the collected responses from anywhere as long as the collection devices have internet access.

Use the following link https://forms.office.com/e/TiLfMAcmhd to request the LACSI electronic questionnaire and the guide to the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence.

By adopting the LACSI methodology, countries can produce relevant and comparable information to measure safety and victimization, and to report on progress on the 2030 Agenda, specifically the indicators for Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (indicator 11.7.2) and Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions (indicators 16.1.3, 16.1.4, 16.3.1 and 16.5.1).

To request technical assistance for the implementation of Victimization Surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean region, please contact the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence:

unodc-mexico.cde.estadistica@un.org

La entrada Now available: LACSI Initiative Questionnaire in electronic format aparece primero en Centro de Excelencia UNODC-INEGI.

La entrada Presentation of the Report “Peru: Feminicide and Violence against Women, 2015-2023” aparece primero en Centro de Excelencia UNODC-INEGI.

In the framework of Nelson Mandela International Day, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released the report “Global prison population and trends. A focus on rehabilitation” from the Data Matters series.

This report reveals major challenges faced by prison systems around the world that threaten the rights to health, security and integrity of deprived persons, among which are:

1. Increasing population deprived of liberty. Although there was a decrease in the COVID-19 pandemic, from 2012 to 2022, it increased by 5.5%, from 10.9 million to 11.5 million persons deprived of liberty. According to 2022 estimates, the Americas is the region with the second highest number of persons deprived of liberty, where North America and South America are the sub-regions with the highest number of persons deprived of liberty with 1.8 and 1.3 million respectively.
2. Almost one third of the population deprived of liberty is in pretrial detention. Globally, 3.5 million people are in pretrial detention, i.e., 8just over 30% are without a sentence. Although globally the proportion of men (31%) and women (30%) without a sentence is similar, Oceania and Africa have a proportion of women without a sentence of over 40%, while in the Americas the proportion of women without a sentence is 35%.
3. Prisons are overcrowded. In 60% of the countries in the world (with available data), prisons operate at 100% of their capacity or are overcrowded, while 1 in 5 countries operate at more than 150% of their capacity. In Africa and the Americas, 70% of countries (with available data) report prison overcrowding, as they operate above 100% of their capacity.
4. Deaths in prison can be prevented; 1 out of every 10 deaths inside prisons is suicide. According to available data, globally there were 34.2 deaths by suicide of persons deprived of liberty per 100,000, which is higher than the suicide rate among the general population, which is 9.2 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. On the other hand, the intentional homicide rate inside prisons is 12.2 per 100,000 persons deprived of liberty, while among the general population the rate is 5.8 intentional homicide deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. In other words, in most of the countries with available data, the rate of intentional homicide is higher inside prisons than among the general population, and the Americas is the region with the highest rate of intentional homicide deaths inside prisons, with 18.3 victims per 100,000 persons deprived of liberty.
5. Prison systems recognize the importance of rehabilitation and social reintegration in prisons. According to information reported by prison administrations, 4 out of 5 administrations have developed a specific strategy for the rehabilitation and reintegration of persons deprived of liberty, half of which have incorporated the participation of inmates in their planning. However, there is no evidence on the extent to which these strategies have been implemented.

All these challenges call for countries to redouble their efforts in the design and implementation of evidence-based public policies to prevent criminal behavior, especially among young people, improve the conditions of detention of persons deprived of liberty, strengthen social reintegration strategies, and guarantee access to justice.

La entrada Global prison population and trends. A focus on rehabilitation aparece primero en Centro de Excelencia UNODC-INEGI.

La entrada Launch of the Higher Diploma in the Measurement of Gender Violence and Femicide aparece primero en Centro de Excelencia UNODC-INEGI.

On this occasion, the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence (CdE) participated with the presentation of the initiative “Saving lives: harnessing Artificial Intelligence and data to prevent violence.” The objective of this initiative is to discover patterns in the reports of emergency calls to 9-1-1 to detect cases of violence against women that, due to the nature of the classification assigned by the operators to attend to the emergency, could not be be identified.

In this sense, the Global Estimates on Femicide published by UNODC and UN Women in 2022 are presented, indicates that homicides of women globally 55% are committed by their partners and members of their families, compared to 12% in the case of homicides of men.

During the presentation, it was highlighted that the detection of cases and statistics are based on traditional sources of information, such as administrative records and surveys, which have certain advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, this initiative is based on the use of non-traditional sources, such as emergency call records, which have the characteristic of being an unexplored data source due to the complexity of unstructured texts, but which contain valuable information, for example, the identification of cases of violence against women.

In general terms, the methodology used is described, which is developed in five phases that include context analysis, data review and cleaning, and the design and training of models based on Artificial Neural Networks for Natural Language Processing.

Finally, Adriana Oropeza, coordinator of the CoE, pointed out the main challenges that the CoE has faced when trying to replicate the exercise carried out due to access, availability, privacy and security of data; to the legal frameworks and the need to implement statistical processes that make the phenomena of interest visible.

La entrada Innovation Day – Saving lives: Leveraging AI & Data to prevent violence aparece primero en Centro de Excelencia UNODC-INEGI.

Within this framework, the latest adjustments made to the matrix were presented, which contains 133 indicators that make it possible to visualize:

(a) gender-based violence, with a special emphasis on identifying crimes committed against children and adolescents; and

b) human and physical resources of the institutions involved in the investigation and administration of justice in Bolivia.

These indicators are included within ten priority themes: sexual abuse, procedural burden, structure (human resources), femicide, forced labor, infanticide, professionalization, rape, rape of child or adolescent, and family or domestic violence.

In the first phase, the Magistrates Council will participate in the review, selection and prioritization of a maximum of 30 indicators, based on seven statistical quality assurance criteria: relevance, accessibility, accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, comparability and reliability.

Adriana Oropeza, coordinator of the CoE, highlighted that this set of indicators is also aligned with the “Guidelines for the production of statistical data by the prosecution service and the courts”, particularly in four of its twelve dimensions: human resources, physical resources, prosecution of criminal cases and criminal trials, which will help to determine, classify and explain what is to be measured with each indicator.

Mónica Bayá, Technical Secretary of the Human Rights Community (CDH), pointed out that in view of the fact that institutions handle different data on the same phenomenon, this exercise will contribute to standardize measurement criteria.

In this regard, Teresa Ledezma, Coordinator of the “Access to Justice” Project of UNODC-Bolivia, pointed out the importance of consolidating a set of gender indicators that will provide standardized information, in order to contribute to the design of public policies based on evidence on an issue as relevant as gender-based violence.

La entrada Bolivia moves towards consolidation and standardization of indicators with a gender perspective and gender-based violence aparece primero en Centro de Excelencia UNODC-INEGI.

During the meeting with the Judiciary Council, the Sistema Automático de Trámite Judicial Ecuatoriano (e-SATJE) was presented, detailing its interaction with the Prosecutor’s Office. The importance of having accurate and homogeneous data to strengthen the quality of information on femicides was highlighted.
On the second day, a meeting was held with the Ministry of Women and Human Rights, where they presented the variables they collect on the services provided to women victims of violence and the development of the Registro Único de Violencia (RUV). Then, with the National Service of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Sciences (SNMLCF), the modalities of data collection on corpses of women victims of gender-based homicide were detailed.
On the last day, during the meeting with the Ministry of Health, they presented their registration systems both for people who attend for internal consultation and for those who require emergency services. At the working meeting with the National Police and the Statistical Strengthening Group, which is led by INEC, the CoE-UNODC-INEGI explained the structure of the CEA ECLAC questionnaire and clarified doubts about its completion. At the closing meeting, a summary of the activities and discussions was presented to INEC, highlighting the potential for standardizing and optimizing the data collection processes on femicides.

Continued collaboration among the institutions involved is expected for the drafting of a national report with recommendations for the adoption of the MEMF.  This inter-institutional effort seeks to strengthen the collection and analysis of data on femicides in Ecuador, with the objective of improving the quality of information and its homologation at the national level. Collaboration and coordination between the different entities is essential to achieve an efficient and accurate registration system that contributes to the fight against gender violence in the country.

La entrada Ecuador moves towards strengthening its femicide recording systems aparece primero en Centro de Excelencia UNODC-INEGI.

On the first day of meetings, the CoE visited the Dominican Republic’s Center for Data Analysis and Citizen Security (CADSECI), the National Police and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. At CADSECI, with the participation of Alberto Morillo, director of the center, and technical staff, the integration of key variables into the CADSECI database was discussed and challenges in data collection and analysis were addressed. Subsequently, with the National Police, Juan Ascensión, in charge of the Statistics Unit, and his team, presented the available data related to the Framework. The session with the Ministry of Women, with Jessica Croce, director of the ministry, highlighted the importance of accurate data to address femicide/feminicide. The ministry presented its format of notification of homicides of women and discussed how the data collected is used.

On the second day of meetings, the CoE visited the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR). At INACIF, Miguel Núñez, in charge of the Thanatology Department, explained the stages in the generation of information on women’s homicides, highlighting the relevance of the body removal and autopsies. The meeting with the PGR, with the participation of Martha González, Director of Statistics, focused on the system for capturing reports and the integration of relevant data for statistical analysis.

The mission concluded with meetings between the CoE and the National Statistics Office of the Dominican Republic (ONE-RD), as well as with the Ministry of Health. In the technical meeting with ONE-RD, the “Implementation Plan for the Implementation of Statistical Classifications Adapted to the Dominican Republic 2025-2028” was reviewed, including the implementation of the International Classification of Statistical Classifications (ICCS) adapted to the country’s context. Possible areas of collaboration were discussed, such as the development of training and the exchange of materials and experiences.

Finally, the meeting with the Ministry of Health, led by Joel Garrido, Director of Statistics, included discussions on the collection of variables through death certificates and the technical and operational challenges to achieve an effective integration of the health and justice systems.

This visit represents a significant step towards improving the collection and analysis of data on femicides/feminicides in the Dominican Republic, strengthening national capacities to effectively address this issue.

La entrada Dominican Republic NSO and CoE work to strengthen measurement of gender-related deaths of women and girls aparece primero en Centro de Excelencia UNODC-INEGI.