In 2015, UNODC published the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) in order to provide an internationally comparable tool to compile and systematize national crime and criminal justice statistics with a view of improving the utility and relevance of these statistics. ICCS is now the international standard for defining and classifying criminal offences to produce and disseminate statistical data on crime and criminal justice.
Building on the process to implement ICCS at the country level and aiming to further promote the use of data in the criminal justice sector, UNODC has developed a new series of guidelines that aim to provide guidance on the collection, production, dissemination and use of high-quality administrative data for statistical purposes. These guidelines can assist the sector in performing and monitoring their core functions, optimize resource use, enhance accountability and public trust, and provide a coherent framework that makes statistical data more consistent and more comparable both at the national and international level.
The series comprises four guidelines on the production of statistical data by criminal justice institutions. Three guidelines offer specific guidance for the police, the prosecution service and the courts, and the prison system respectively on which data to collect and how they can potentially be used to improve the delivery of justice. The last guidelines focus on the development and governance of an interoperable system of administrative data for statistical purposes in the criminal justice sector more broadly.
