The Role of International Organizations in Measuring Crime

• In Event: International Efforts to Measure Crime and their Implications for Criminologists

Abstract

Analyzing and understanding crime trends and levels require solid and comprehensive statistics covering the entire criminal justice process starting from the nature of criminal events, the characteristics of victims and perpetrators, the moment in which the crime is committed, the conviction and rehabilitation of offenders and the provision of necessary support to the victims of crime. United Nations Member States and the international community have been engaged in the production and dissemination of crime data for decades and although progress has been made, several challenges remain, particularly in relation to difficult-to-measure crime. International Organizations such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) play a core role in providing technical assistance and promoting methodological and international standards on data collection, dissemination and analysis. Generating relevant, reliable and comparable data on crime may contribute to evidence based policy making.

Author

• Salome Flores, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime