Luis Beccaria, Director of the ECLAC Statistics Division:

More and Better Statistics on Public Safety and Justice

Photo: Lorenzo Moscia/ECLAC

At the most recent meeting of the Executive Committee of the ECLAC Statistical Conference of the Americas (SCA-ECLAC), held in July in Quito, Ecuador, participants reviewed the biennial programme of work of the Conference. The agenda also included two substantive seminars, one based on statistics on public safety and justice. This is a highly relevant area of statistics for the region, although it is less developed than other domains.

The population's growing and overriding concern about the public safety situation can be seen throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, although the intensity of insecurity differs among countries.

Although there is considerable evidence about such perceptions, there is less information available on the number and characteristics of the crimes committed, their victims and the outcome in terms of charges, prosecution and penalties. It is crucial to have statistical data on such matters in order to analyse the factors and circumstances related to crimes, but fundamentally so that States can plan and implement policies aimed at preventing and combating various manifestations of crime.

Practically all of the region's countries have – and most systematize – a series of data on several relevant variables, including those on crime reports made to police officers or information from the activities of public prosecutor's offices and judicial authorities.

While such information may be useful for monitoring the public safety situation, there is a broad consensus around the serious limitations to most data from administrative records. These include the under-recording of crimes that varies over time and that makes time comparisons difficult.

Failure to press charges can differ depending on the type of crime: charges are less likely to be brought in sexual crimes and domestic violence offences. As pointed out in the seminar of the SCA-ECLAC Executive Committee meeting, complaints are only the tip of the iceberg.

The meeting included presentations of experiences of a couple of the region's countries in terms of systematic actions to set up schemes or subsystems for public safety and justice statistics.

In terms of the strategy of the region's countries to generate basic information in this field, the aim has been twofold (as is the case with experiences outside the region).

First, there is the regular and systematic collection of victim surveys, targeted mainly at households, which show the number and characteristics of insecurity events experienced by their members during a given time. These surveys also usually indicate if the victim or his/her family members lodged a complaint. In some cases, victim surveys are also carried out among companies.

Second, there is a broader and more timely systematization of administrative records, which involves closer collaboration among the police, judicial authorities and central statistics office. There are also efforts to improve the quality of this data source by overcoming some of the above-mentioned limitations.

There is a recognition, however, that not all limitations will be removed or reduced with more decisive technical action. Issues such as failure to report crimes are entrenched in cultural patterns or a lack of public confidence in institutions.

In order to facilitate closer and more effective cooperation among countries faced with the challenge of acquiring more and better statistics on public safety and justice, the Executive Committee of the SCA-ECLAC adopted an agreement to set up a committee tasked with creating a working group for this topic.