Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Prosecution Statistics Part 1 Crime, Justice & Security Statistics Produced in Collaboration between World Bank Institute and the Development Data Group (DECDG)

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Relation to other Modules Prosecution Statistics do not stand on their own. They are closely related to other statistics on justice discussed in surrounding modules. Those interested in prosecution statistics could also benefit from studying the following: Module 1 (Governance, especially the role of the Central Statistical Office) Module 3 (Police statistics, especially on criminals) Module 5 (Courts) 2

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Prosecution process If the Police feel they have enough evidence to charge an offender, they will pass the case to a prosecutor The prosecutor will then judge whether the case should go forward to the court If so, the prosecutor will arrange for the case to be presented to the judge Sometimes the prosecutor is within the Police service; sometimes he is independent in a separate prosecution service Separate statistics are needed whatever the situation of the prosecution 3

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Role of the prosecutor The exact role will vary, depending on country’s historical background In some countries, the prosecutor has strong powers, controls the police investigation and supervises the outcome of the court process In most countries, however, he is the link between the police and the courts: He ensures evidence is sufficient, the case is presented fairly and the defendant can make a defence to the charge This Module provides general guidelines for the collection and analysis of data by a prosecutor, however complex or simple is his role It will demonstrate how targets can be set for the prosecution service and how statistics can monitor these. 4

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Main Prosecution statistics However wide or narrow the role of the prosecutor, there are three basic types of statistics that will be useful for managing and reporting on the service Statistics on the workload of the prosecutor Statistics on the outcomes of cases dealt with by the prosecutor Statistics of prosecution resources Targets could be set for each of these 5

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Workload Statistics – General Workload Statistics show the amount of work that the prosecution service has done in a particular period These will usually be criminal cases that it deals with They could also include applications made to the court: eg for search warrants, seizure of assets, special arrangements for witnesses Data can usefully be collected on a monthly basis from each prosecution office The amount of detail required is relatively small 6

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Workload Statistics – Example Prosecution Office….. Month……. Cases receivedCases dealt with in period Cases waiting at end of period Main Offence type Homicide Assault Robbery Theft …….. 7

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Workload Classifications The prosecution office does not need to collect a large amount of detailed statistics But it will need to ensure the classifications used are consistent with those used by the police and the courts This is to make sure data can be compared uniformly across the three justice agencies An example is the Broad coding used by the police/courts for offence type The codes need to be agreed at the Crime Statistics committee, usually chaired by the CSO. 8

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Workload indicator trends National Data Cases received Cases dealt with Cases waiting at end of period Length of time to clear waiting lists 9

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Outcome Statistics – General The prosecutor has to decide what to do with cases received from the police: several options are possible: To prosecute the case as it stands For these cases, it is important to record whether the prosecution was successful To throw the case out as not having enough evidence To throw the cases out as not being in the public interest to prosecute To return to the police to collect more evidence To return to the police with the suggestion they take action themselves: eg deportation: warning. 10

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Outcome Statistics – Example Office….. Month…. HomicideAssaultRobberyTheftSexual, …… Prosecuted Of which successful No action – evidence No action PI Return for more evidence Return for action Total dealt with 11

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Outcome Indicator Trends Office…… ProsecutedNumber (%) Of which successful No action – evidence No action PI Return for more evidence Return for action Total dealt with 12

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Prosecution staff numbers To work out the efficiency of the prosecution service it is important to know the number of staff employed Staff numbers need only be collected once a year, eg see the next slide, with staff numbers collected in broad categories for each prosecution office Senior prosecution staff need to know how well their resources are spread throughout the country They also need to know the extent of any vacancies This form will also enable the prosecution service to answer UN queries about the number of prosecution staff and show senior staff how their country compares with others Other forms could be devised on an annual basis, to record the amount of resources in each prosecution office: eg vehicles, computers 13

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Prosecution staff statistics Name of Prosecution Office ………………. Numbers recruited in year Numbers left in year Number in post at end of year Vacancies at end of year Senior Prosecutors Junior Prosecutors Paralegals Administrators 14

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Useful Indicators The national office will be able to collate workload data for the whole country National data on staff employed can also be collated together Useful indicators can be calculated: eg. Workload per prosecutor Workload per total member of staff Number of vacancies by type These should be calculated by region and area Thus, numbers of staff available can be related to workload for different areas and any anomalies corrected. In due course, targets could be set for these indicators 15

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Manpower Trends National prosecution Numbers Total employed Workload per staff member Recruited during year Left during year Vacancies % Vacancies 16

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Summary and individual returns Up to now we have discussed summary data sent in routinely, say monthly. However, more detail would be available if an individual form could be set up to capture data from each case. This would be more efficient if computers were available but it is possible to do it manually It could be carried out for all cases or for only a sample. The next slide shows an example of collecting data from all cases prosecuted for Rape 17

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Example of individual form Survey of all Rape cases in……. Office during 2010 Ref \No.………… …… Police Station making report………………… Age of victim…..Date case arrived……… Age of suspect…..Date of decision……… Related?Y/NDate of court hearing……… Gang RapeY/NResult of court hearingG/NG Date of Rape…….Type of sentence Place of Rape……..Length of custody Time of Day……..Result of appealS/US/Not made Combined with injury? Y/NDate appeal finalised……… Date of report to HQ……… 18