NCJ Number
223640
Editor(s)
Kauko Aromaa,
Markku Heiskanen
Date Published
March 2008
Length
234 pages
Annotation
This report on the United Nations Surveys on Crime Trends and Operations of the Criminal Justice Systems in Europe and North America presents data for the 10-year period 1995-2004.
Abstract
The 11 chapters of this report deal with central issues addressed in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth surveys, which cover the years 1995-2004. This includes data on police, prosecution, courts, and prison levels. Resources of the criminal justice systems are also analyzed. Juvenile justice is discussed as well. The analysis includes all European countries except those with very small populations (Liechtenstein, Vatican City, and Monaco). Three nations adjacent to Europe are also included: Georgia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan (members of the Council of Europe). The North American countries are Canada and Europe. A chapter on trends in criminal justice system resources for 1995-2004 focuses on the criminal justice workforce, providing basic information about the number and gender of people working as police, prosecutors, judges, or prison staff in some 50 countries. The chapter on crime trends reports on police-recorded crime rates. Results are reported for total police-recorded crime, homicides, assaults, robberies, rapes, narcotics offenses, property and other crimes, burglary, and “other offenses.” Other chapters provide data and analysis on persons brought into initial contact with police, prosecution, and court data, juvenile justice, trends in prison populations for 1995-2004, and an empirical approach to country clustering. A chapter addresses issues in measuring the influence of statistical counting rules on cross-national differences in recorded crime, followed by a chapter on trends and methodological aspects in the international collection of crime and criminal justice statistics. The final chapter draws a number of conclusions about the survey findings and the methodology of data collection. Extensive tables and figures