Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has the mission of making the world safer from crime, drugs, and terrorism. To be effective and sustainable, responses to these threats must include crime prevention and criminal justice strategies, covering areas listed below. Strategies must take a human rights approach and be based on the rule of law, together with the UN standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice.

 

 

Crime Prevention

  • Urban crime prevention
  • Armed violence prevention
  • Prevention of recidivism

 

Criminal Justice Reform

 

Childrens, Victims, and Women's Issues

 

Within UNODC, overall responsibility related to crime prevention and criminal justice reform lies within the Justice Section in the Division of Operations, at headquarter-level. The Justice Section performs both normative work and operational work, to assist countries in the areas of crime prevention and criminal justice. The normative work of the Justice Section relates to the revision of existing standards and norms, the development of new standards and norms, and the monitoring of their use and application. The operational work of the Justice Section includes activities such as providing technical assistance to Member States and developing tools to assist Members States in implementing the UN standards and norms. The Justice Section brochure is available for download in: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.

At field level, UNODC has been developing regional/country programmes, covering all thematic areas included in its mandate, with strong criminal justice components, based on needs and objectives identified in each region/country. For more information on UNODC's work on crime prevention and criminal justice at field level, please consult each field level entity's webpage on their crime prevention and criminal justice pillar, through UNODC's field offices portal.

UN Standards and Norms in Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

The work of UNODC in crime prevention and criminal justice reform is guided by the UN standards and norms on crime prevention and criminal justice. The UN standards and norms are sets of non-binding rules, principles, and guidelines relating to different aspects of criminal justice. Most of the UN standards and norms are resolutions adopted by the General Assembly or the Economic and Social Council.

The Compendium UN standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice are available for download in: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.

Recent reports of the Secretary-General on use and application of UN standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice are also available for download: 2009, 2010, 2011.

Thematic Programme on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

The thematic programme provides the strategic framework for UNODC's work, especially that of the Justice Section, on crime prevention and criminal justice reform. It presents UNODC's mandate to assist countries in developing new instruments, strategies, policies, action plans, programmes, and projects for crime prevention and criminal justice reform and presents the tools and services that UNODC can provide to States and non-State actors.

The thematic programme also outlines the organizational context and the guiding principles in preventing crime and reforming criminal justice systems. It illustrates UNODC's objectives in these areas and the implementation strategy and partnerships needed to achieve them.

To download UNODC's thematic programme for 2010 - 2011 on crime prevention and criminal justice, click here.

Statistics and Surveys

Apart from normative and operational work, UNODC also conducts research in the areas of crime prevention and criminal justice. For further information, please follow the links below:

World crime trend reports for 2009 and 2010 are also available for download.

Click here for the Secretariat's note on world crime trends and emerging issues and responses in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice for 2011.