1. Montenegro Statistical Training
Prosecution / Courts
Session 4, February 3, – 12.00
Overview of the Criminal Justice System and Statistics – Recording and Counting rules
With funding from the European Union
DEVELOPMENT OF MONITORING INSTRUMENTS FOR JUDICIAL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT INSTITUTIONS IN THE WESTERN BALKANS
Phase three – Training 1

2. Recording and counting rules
One of the most confusing aspects of Criminal Justice Statistics is the changing counting unit. Roughly spoken from victim to crime to offender to case.
One of the complications is that labeling is sometimes needed at another level of counting (e.g. crime type at the case level)
Another complication is one of communication: between languages, but also between agencies within one country 2

3. Contents Counting unit / counting moment Principal Offence rule
Multiple sanctions / offences / suspects

4. Recording and counting rules
For each item I will give a general introduction and I will reflect on how it is dealt with in the Netherlands, followed by a roundtable discussion establishing the situation in Montenegro
I will discuss the whole flow through the Justice System, but concentrating on Prosecution and Courts
The aim of this session is to describe in detail the recording and counting rules in Montenegro and to identify possible shortcomings 4

5. Counting unit
There is a multitude of potential counting units. To name a few (in English, not to be translated!):
Victim, Person, Household, Crime, Criminal act, Offence, CC article, Offender, Case, File, Dossier, Verdict, Sentence, Sanction, …
The exact (legal) definition is often not clear, which makes it hard to translate 5

6. Counting unit Victim Surveys
The counting unit here is often (as in the Dutch Victim Survey) a person, however restricted to persons above a certain age.
Sometimes the unit is a household
For bussiness surveys the unit is a company
The reporting unit can be the number of victimizations 6

7. Counting unit Police recording
Here it starts getting more complicated. Usually the unit is the crime, possibly defined as:
“a set of actions, linked together in time and place, committed by one or more persons at the expense of zero or more persons, where these actions are considered criminal by law”
This would be a good description of the Dutch situation: a crime (misdrijf) is recorded with possibly more victims and more offenders. And more offences (feiten), provided these are part of the same crime. 7

8. Counting unit Police recording (cont.)
Would this be a good description of the counting unit for recorded crimes in Montenegro? What would be the local terms and is ‘crime’ in your view the logical translation in English for the whole and ‘offence’ for the parts? 8

9. Counting unit Suspected Offenders
This seems easy, the counting unit is the person.
Some questions remain, such as:
When is a person considered a suspected offender? (the Neth: when the person is formally interrogated)
Are unique persons counted? (the Neth: no)
Again: what would the answer be in Montenegro? 9

10. Counting unit Police output / Prosecution input
Statistically, these could be the same. In the Netherlands police output is not seen as a separate statistic.
(But of course, the input of the Prosecution could come from other agencies as well)
The counting unit is called a zaak in the Netherlands, which could be translated into the English term ‘case’. But: 10

11. Prosecution / Court cases (the Netherlands)
The basic unit for statistical purposes is the ‘case’ (Dutch: ‘zaak’). A case has always exactly one offender. A sentencing decision by the court is always made on the level of the case and can consist of different sanctions
However, a case can have more than one crime committed by this offender (cases can be combined into one case). A decision by the PPS can be on the level of the crime.
Also, a crime can consist of more than one offence (Dutch: ‘feit’) …..

12. Prosecution / Court cases (the Netherlands)
And this can be done in two ways:
The crime itself consists of more than one offence (e.g. robbery in combination with illegal arms possession)
The crime has been given an alternative lable by the PPS: (e.g. manslaughter or assault leading to death)
The guilty/not guilty court verdict is on this level (the offence)
N.b. The offence can exist of more than one articles in the CC

13. Prosecution / Court cases (Macedonia)
How is this organized in Montenegro statistics:
Offenders, cases, verdicts, offences, sanctions?
Are these in your view indeed the right English terms?
The same for Prosecution and Courts?

14. Prosecution / Court cases (the Netherlands)
Statistically, the Dutch data structure is problematic for two reasons:
The number of cases is rather flexible (cases seem to disappear when they are combined). This has an effect on what is considered input/output.
Combining cases by Prosecutor and/or Judge is possible (in the Netherlands). In Montenegro?
It is very important how to deal with those in Statistics. What kind of a decision would this be?

15. Prosecution / Court cases (the Netherlands)
Statistically, the Dutch data structure is problematic for two reasons:
2. Much information is available on the level of the offence, but needed on the level of the case. This makes the decision what offence level information to use (e.g. to answer the question what sentence was given to which crime type) rather complicated!
Principal Offence rule
Principal Sanction rule

16. Principal Offence rule
If a case consists of more than one offence there are several possibilities when establishing the type of crime:
The crime type of the most important offence is taken (and how is most important then defined?)
The crime type of the first offence is taken
The statistics are not given on the level of the case, but on the level of the offence
Other, ...
The principal offence rule says to use 1. What would the solution be in Montenegro?

17. Principal Sanction rule
If more than one sanction is imposed on an offender there are several possibilities when establishing the type of sanction for the crime:
The most severe sanction is taken (and how is most severe then defined?)
The first sanction is taken
All sanctions are given
Other, ...
The principal sanction rule says to use 1. What would the solution be in Montenegro?

18. Suggestion
An exact description / definition of all entities (like case, offender, offence etc.) in the Criminal Justice System and their relation to each other is very important. So is a description of the flow through the system of each entity
There are useful tools – mainly used in IT - to model these aspects. For example class diagrams and state diagrams in UML (Unified Modelling Language)
It would be very useful (and necessary anyhow when building computer systems to support your statistics) to do this, together with IT professionals 18

19. Montenegro Statistical Training
Prosecution / Courts
Session 4, February 3, – 12.00
Overview of the Criminal Justice System and Statistics – Recording and Counting rules
With funding from the European Union
DEVELOPMENT OF MONITORING INSTRUMENTS FOR JUDICIAL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT INSTITUTIONS IN THE WESTERN BALKANS
Phase three – Training 19