Defining and Registering Criminal Offences and Measures - Oapen

Aims and Methodology of the Study 5
pondents provided data from current statistical sources within each country.
These data were then supplemented by the collection of information on statistical
and legal definitions. The group, which included several members involved in
recent UN surveys, felt that this approach would allow more comprehensive and
accurate data to be produced.
The system of national correspondents required that each country should have
one person responsible for the collection and initial checking of the data. Each
correspondent would be an expert in crime and criminal justice statistics and act
as a helpline. They would also be entrusted with checking their country’s data to
ensure good quality. The national correspondents had and have full responsibility
for the accuracy of the data provided by their respective countries. A group of
three or four national correspondents were ‘coached’ by each member of the Experts’
Group in their capacity as ‘regional coordinators’, a system that is also still
applied now.
After the publication of the first edition in 1999, 12 the Council of Europe was
no longer able to support the project financially. In 2000, in order to maintain
continuity in a data collection effort (which was seen as important) and especially
to avoid dismantling the network of correspondents (from 40 countries), the British
Home Office, the Swiss Foreign Ministry (through the University of Lausanne
School of Criminal Sciences) and the Dutch Ministry of Justice agreed to continue
supporting the project until the publication of the second edition. These three
new funding agencies commissioned a small group of experts with the work of
updating the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics. Most
of these experts are still active in the group. 13
After the publication of the second edition in 2003, 14 the Swiss Federal Office
of Statistics and the Dutch Ministry of Justice (WODC) 15 offered financial and
logistic support to maintain the work for the third edition. 16 The European Commission,
the German Federal Ministry of Justice and the Home Office provided
the funds necessary to organize one meeting each.
Given the modest resources, the Experts’ Group decided for the third edition
to concentrate on updating time-series data as well as on improving data quality.
12 COUNCIL OF EUROPE (ed.): European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics,
Strasbourg: Council of Europe 2000.
13 Beata GRUSZCZYŃSKA and Vasilika HYSI then joined the group, as well as Cynthia TA-
VARES, who now works for Eurostat and was the representative of Eurostat on the steering
board during the AGIS project.
14 AEBI et al.: European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics – 2003, 2nd edition,
Den Haag: Boom 2003.
15 Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum, Den Haag.
16 AEBI et. al.: European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics – 2006, 3rd edition,
Den Haag: Boom 2006.