Crime & Criminal Justice Data & Metadata collection & dissemination Cynthia Tavares Task Force meeting Luxembourg, 17 – 18 October 2006

Data & Metadata Data collection – progress & issues Database – data & metadata Dissemination – “Statistics in Focus”

Data collection – progress First presentation of data made to Task Force in March 2006 Data tables sent to all contact persons in mid-March; reply requested by end April After reminders, all countries (except Hungary) responded by mid-June Data tables sent to all contact persons again in June for a final check to be carried out Data tables sent to all contact persons in mid-March asking them to verify both the data and metadata and to contact other experts in their country, where necessary Reply requested by end April 2006 In fact, I sent individual emails to all contact persons giving them the names & contact details of other experts in their country known to me. Data tables sent to all contact persons again in June About half of the countries replied saying no changes. Hungary replied to this letter.

Data collection – issues Some countries slow in replying Some contact persons not acting as central points Some contact points not expert Data series revised at late stage Differences between different data sets Any other problems, corrections etc.? Issues = Problems Some countries slow in replying Greece – I had some queries on the homicide figures Hungary – changes in Administration – the contact person no longer employed Romania – Queries on most tables Some contact persons not acting as central points France - Most information provided but not the number of police officers as "not their competence“ although Eurostat has stressed that it is contact person's responsibility to collect ALL the figures for their country. Some contact points not expert Austria - Questioned big % changes - told that no rules changes etc but I found (from ES) various changes have taken place – electronic data collection, new counting rules. Data series revised at late stage Netherlands – total crime and prison figures revised following discussion with several experts in the country UK: England & Wales – figures now revised to include offences recorded by another police force, the Transport Police Differences between different data sets – see Handout UNODC (Wolfgang Rhomberg) have compared the Crime Trends Survey data with Eurostat data for the prison population and homicide. I have added data from the European Sourcebook, the Council of Europe, Centre for Penal Studies and Eurostat’s Causes of Death database. There are some differences that need investigation Any other problems, corrections etc.? Can still take into account - Need to know by the end of this week

Crime & Criminal Justice database Information from the Excel spreadsheets to be transferred to Eurostat’s database Information will be available free of charge All the data and metadata on database Eurostat’s database = New Cronos All the data and metadata (i.e. footnotes) there Total crime from 1950 Selected offences from 1993 Prison population from 1987 Information on non-EU countries – Albania, Australia, Canada etc How the information can be accessed I am going to show some pictures from Eurostat’s Website – easier to look at the handout

Crime & Criminal Justice database Easier to look at your handout now – page 1 Under the theme “Population & Social Conditions Divided into 6 big tables Historical data for total crime and prison population in separate tables Data can be viewed and downloaded in a variety of formats simple subsets of the tables using JAVA which allows browse select and sort – using your own queries export to common formats such as HTML, CSV, Excel HTML TSV – download entire table as tab separated vales for import into program

Crime & Criminal Justice database Look at your handout – pages 2 to 3 You can select by year country offence unit - number, average rate, and percentage change

Crime & Criminal Justice database Result gives a simple tables – see pages 4

Crime & Criminal Justice database Look at the handout – page 5 This is a more sophisticated way of accessing the data, running in Java Able to Select, sort and filter on all the columns and rows Export to HTML, Flat files etc Run and save queries Customise the layout

Crime & Criminal Justice database See handout – page 6 – the last page - for a view of the results

Crime & Criminal Justice database Metadata Please refer to the documents sent to you earlier.

Crime & Criminal Justice database Metadata Metadata provided according to the international standard “Special Data Dissemination Standard” (SDDS) Text files on the website “Base page”, containing general information for a broad category of data “Summary methodology”, including more specific technical information Please refer to the documents sent to you earlier Metadata (i.e. the footnotes – the offence definitions from the Excel Spreadsheet provided according to the international standard “Special Data Dissemination Standard” (SDDS) Text files Base page Summary methodology Offence definitions and exceptions are listed in the Annex, as well as the population figures used for calculations. At the appropriate place, there are links to HEUNI for country profiles UN for information from the Crime Trends Surveys European Sourcebook for information on definitions Italy (Guisy Muratore) has also provided a page about crime statistics in Italy. Do you think it would be useful to have a page like this for each country or is it sufficient to refer to HEUNI and European Sourcebook for such information?

Dissemination “Statistics in Focus” Please refer to the documents sent to you earlier.

“Statistics in Focus”

Statistics in Focus Short report -12 pages only - 3 languages covering the main points Highlights on first page, commentary, data and methodological notes To be published as soon as it is finalised Short report -12 pages – covering the main points full information in database, published at the same time French & German longer so left space Highlights on first page, commentary, data and methodological notes I have tried to include a table or a chart on all aspects of the data To be published as soon as it is finalised There is a set procedure in Eurostat which takes at least a month All publications have to be approved by the director Then translation into French and German – about another month Help required with proof-reading the French and German – Eurostat translators not yet familiar with terminology Are national contact persons able to help able to help?

Comments / Discussion Data – tables on website Metadata – SDDS fiches Statistics in Focus Now invite comments on Data – tables on website Metadata – SDDS fiches, is any information missing, should there information by country – like Italy? Statistics in Focus – does it have all the information you would expect to see? What aspects could we focus on for Press Release?