Croatia Statistical Training

1
CroatiaStatistical Training

• Courts
• Session 4, January 17th, 13.45 14.30
• Overview of the Criminal Justice System and
  Statistics Recording and Counting rules

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

3
Contents

1. Counting unit / counting moment
2. Principal Offence rule
3. Principal Sanction rule

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 Croatia
• I will discuss the whole flow through the Justice
  System, but concentrating on Courts
• The aim of this session is to describe in detail
  the recording and counting rules in Croatia and
  to identify possible shortcomings

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

6
Counting unitVictim 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

7
Counting unitPolice 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.

8
Counting unitPolice recording (cont.)

• Would this be a good description of the counting
  unit for recorded crimes in Croatia? 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?

9
Counting unitSuspected 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 Croatia?

10
Counting unitPolice 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

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 (Croatia)

• How is this organized in Croatia 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 Croatia?
• 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 Croatia?

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 Croatia?

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

19
CroatiaStatistical Training

• Courts
• Session 4, January 17th, 13.45 14.30
• Overview of the Criminal Justice System and
  Statistics Recording and Counting rules