Are juvenile criminal justice statistics comparable across countries?: a study of the data available in 45 European nations

This article analyses the data on minors included in the police, prosecution, conviction, prison and probation statistics of 45 European nations in 2010, which were collected in the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics. The main conclusions of the analysis are that comprehens...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Campistol, Claudia (Author)
Contributors: Aebi, Marcelo F.
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
In: European journal on criminal policy and research
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Keywords:
Comparative criminology
Criminal statistics
Europe
Juvenile delinquency
Minors
Description
Summary:This article analyses the data on minors included in the police, prosecution, conviction, prison and probation statistics of 45 European nations in 2010, which were collected in the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics. The main conclusions of the analysis are that comprehensive juvenile justice statistics are seldom available and that the existing data are hardly comparable across countries. The article identifies the main reasons that hamper the comparability: The definition of minors is not harmonized, the rules applied for the construction of the statistics are not the same, and there are differences in the legal procedures foreseen for minors as well as on the type of sanctions that can be imposed to them. As a consequence, European juvenile justice statistics do not provide valid comparable information on the extent of juvenile delinquency, and their reliability as indicators of the social reaction to it is doubtful.
ISSN:1572-9869
DOI:10.1007/s10610-017-9345-2