Survey on adults against whom the proceedings by crime report were terminated

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS)

Group for Justice and Gender statistic

Vesna Zajc and Dragana Nikolic

Head of the Judicial and Gender Statistics Group

Statistical Methodologist

SORS, Belgrade, 5 Milana Rakića 

vesna.zajc@stat.gov.rs;

dragana.nikolic@stat.gov.rs

+381112412922 ext  298

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Classification of Criminal Offenses

The statistical survey covers all perpetrators of criminal offences  (including criminal offences committed by unknown perpetrators) against whom a charge has been submitted to the competent public prosecutor’s office, and against whom legal action has been taken and terminated.  

"Criminal offence" is an act considered by law as a criminal offence, which is illegal and committed. An act is not considered criminal offence when illegality or guilt is excluded, even when there are all elements of the criminal offence specified by the law.” (Article 14 of the Criminal Law).

Reported perpetrator – perpetrator known is taken to be an adult perpetrator of criminal offence against whom the proceedings by crime report and preliminary proceedings have been terminated by a decision, by which: a charge has been rejected, investigation suspended or a charge sheet raised – summary charge sheet submitted.

Reported perpetrator – perpetrator unknown is considered to be an unknown person – perpetrator of criminal offence against whom a crime report has been submitted to the public prosecutor’s office for a committed criminal offence, and the perpetrator has not been identified after a one-year period.  .

"Type of decision"  is taken to be the decision of the public prosecutor’s office by which the proceedings by crime report has been terminated.

Data on personal characteristics of a perpetrator of criminal offence refer to personal characteristics that the perpetrator had at the moment of criminal offence committal. Data on criminal offence: name of the criminal offence, article, paragraph, point and connection with other criminal offences from the applicable criminal law are collected on the basis of the decision of the public prosecutor’s office, i.e. court as formulated in the enacting terms of the final decision, and are processed in detail. The names and types of public prosecutor’s offices are given as laid down in the Law on Public Prosecutor’s Offices.

The survey aims to collect data on reported perpetrators of criminal offences from the moment of  filing a crime report to the moment of when the proceedings are terminated by a finally binding court decision by the relevant authorities.

The observation unit is the adult perpetrator.

The data collected in this survey provide information on the perpetrator, criminal offence, procedural phases, type of decision, duration of detention and duration of the proceedings

The statistical population is the adult perpetrators of the crime, who committed an offence as perpetrators, co-perpetrators,instigators or accessory.

The data are published at the level of the Republic of Serbia (in total), at the level of the region, in the north of Serbia (which includes the Belgrade region and the Vojvodina region) and the region of South Serbia (which covers the region of Sumadija and Western Serbia and the Region of South and East Serbia).

Some data are published at the level of the primary and higher Public prosecutor offices.

Starting from 1999 the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia has no available data for AP Kosovo and Metohija, therefore these data are not included in the coverage for the Republic of Serbia (total).

Data are available on the SORS website since 2004, while data for previous years can be found in the Library of the Republic Statistical Office.

Number of adults.

The calendar year.

The survey is conducted on the basis of the Law on Official Statistics "Official Gazette of RS",No 104/09, 24/11 and the Regulation on determining individual statistical surveys for each year, as well as according to the Program of Official Statistics of the Republic of Serbia, which refers to the five-year period of conducting the survey.

The European Union statistics/Eurostat defines the theme "Crime and Criminal Justice" and thereby data collection for the common questionnaire of Eurostat and the UNODC.

Confidential data are treated in accordance with the prescribed confidentiality principles. See Law on Official Statistics.

• The first results of the survey are published in the relevant statistical release, and the deadline is published in mid-July.
• Data in the Bulletin are published at the end of December.

The publication calendar is available on the official website of the SORS.

The dynamics of dissemination is one-year. The first results of the survey are published in a shorter form-Statistical Release, and the deadline for their publication is in mid-July, while more detailed information is shown in the Bulletin and published at the end of December.

Not applicable.

On the SORS website, online databases are available first to find the dissemination database and to the Adult perpetrators of criminal offenses.

Macropods are not available.

• Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Serbia
• Statistical Calendar
• Other publications ..

Quality management system

Data on the reported adult person against whom proceedings were terminated by crime report are based on reliable data from relevant administrative sources. The degree of accuracy is high. Before publishing the results, logical quality control and verification of certain data are performed.

The survey is conducted on the basis of data from administrative sources, which ensures a high level of coverage and quality of data.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Data on the criminality of adult persons entitled "Criminal Reports", obtained on the basis of statistical survey conducted through the form SK-1, are published at the level of the Republic of Serbia, the region, and some data at the level of the basic and higher public prosecutor's office.

There is no time limit in the comparability of statistical data.

Not available.

• SORS costs relate to the work on methodology, printing, and distribution of forms, data processing and dissemination.
• Costs of reporting units: filling in and distributing forms.

Basic principles and standards for conducting audits of published statistical data are defined in the document "General Policy Audit" SORS.

Revisions in this survey are made in line with amendments to the Criminal Code and the needs of the user. Previously published data cannot be changed.

The survey is based on administrative data.

The survey is conducted in one-year frequency and data are collected in monthly frequency. The reporting method is used for data collection. This method is used both for the first phase of the proceedings at the public prosecutor's offices, as well as reporting units by means of forms SK-1.

SORS also performs control of the coverage and accuracy of the data, performs coding, data log entries, logical and calculation control of the data

Not available.

Not applicable.

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