Joint Report by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography ...

MISIÓN PERMANENTE DE MÉXICOJoint Report by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) ofMexico and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) aboutcrime statistics, during the 44 th session of the United Nations StatisticalCommission (topic 3-j)New York, February 28 th , 2013Dr. Mario PalmaVicepresident, National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) of MexicoFor the INEGI of Mexico is a pleasure to submit, together with Angela Me of theUNODC, this proposed "roadmap", in compliance with the request of the StatisticalCommission at its 43 rd Session of 2012.Since February 2012, we have implicitly started to walk down this path withmultiple actions: in its 21 st session in April, the Commission on Crime Preventionand Criminal Justice of the UN adopted a resolution in the same sense as that ofthe Statistical Commission; this was followed by the First International Conferenceon Government Statistics, Public Security, Victimization and Justice, which broughttogether more than 400 participants from 28 countries in May 2012 inAguascalientes, Mexico; as well as the Expert Group on Crime Statistics and theWorking Group on International Crime Classification, which convened over 20countries and 12 international organizations earlier this February in Vienna, thanksto the Statistical Commission of the UN and the UNODC.I’d like to ask Angela to introduce the programme, which aims to comprehensivelyrespond to the worldwide challenges for the production of crime statistics.Ms. Angela MeChief, Research and Analysis, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)The road map on crime statistics that the Commission is about to discuss includesa proposal for a vision on how the international statistical community can improvethe quality and availability of crime statistics. It proposes priority areas andconcrete outputs.

The priority areas include:· the development of an international classification of crime for statisticalpurposes,· the promotion of new data collection tools such as victimization surveysamong households and business, the use of GIS and remote sensing,· the development of measurement frameworks for those forms of crimewhich are of high political relevance but are almost invisible due to the scarcityof data, such as corruption, organized crime, money laundering, cybercrime,trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants· the improvement of the quality of information and knowledge disseminatedby UNODC at international levelIn relation to the classification, the last Statistical Commission asked UNODC andINEGI to assess its feasibility and we are happy to report that during one year ofconsultation and testing we came to the conclusion that the classification isfeasible and highly needed. The roadmap includes a proposal for a series ofactivities which contribute to the finalization of the classification and its submissionto the Statistical Commission in 2015.The types of activities that the roadmap proposes include three areas:· support to countries to improve the capacity to collect, disseminate andanalyze crime data particularly on those forms of crime which are most difficultto measure.· development of international standards (for example the development of amanual on victimization surveys in businesses, the provision of statistical toolsto measure corruption, and the finalization of indicators framework formeasuring organized crime)· improvement of international data series and analytical products which canbetter describe the crime problem across countries and regions in view also ofproviding the measurables needed in the post 2015 development agenda ifareas such as security and access to justice are includedThe Group of experts that recently met in Vienna discussed the vision presented inthe roadmap and it provided suggestions on how to implement the differentproposals. The report of the meeting is available to the Commission as roomdocument. The group agreed that the roadmap can be implemented only if there iscollaboration between the international statistical community and the internationalcommunity working on crime and criminal justice through a joint work between thetwo UN Commissions which at national level translates into coordination betweenNSOs and criminal justice institutions. While there is not a national coordinationformula that can be applied to all countries, the roadmap invites NSOs to be moreproactive in promoting coordination of all criminal justice institutions and inimplementing victimization surveys.The roadmap is quite ambitious and the group of experts supported the idea ofdeveloping regional and international partnerships which can contribute to thedifferent areas of the roadmap, particularly in Africa and Asia where data are most

scarce. In this context the good example of the UNODC-INEGI Center ofExcellence for Statistical Information on Governance, Victimization, Public Securityand Justice was recognized encouraging other regions to develop similarpartnerships.To conclude, we would encourage the Commission:· to review and endorse the vision and activities presented in the roadmapand discuss the course of action for its implementation· to call for a joint Expert Group between the SC and the Commission onCrime Prevention and Criminal Justice to monitor the implementation of theroadmap and advise on the relevance and quality of the different outputs.· To promote initiatives which foster the coordination among nationalinstitutions involved in crime and criminal justice statistics and invite NSO tobecome proactive to promote coordination and consider the implementation ofpopulation and business victimization surveys· To support the organization of the Second International Conference onCrime Statistics in 2014Thank you very much.