Criminal and Judicial Statistics: 1800 to present day: International

The Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics, better known as SPACE (Statistiques Pénales Annuelles du Conseil de l’Europe), include two related projects. SPACE I provides data on imprisonment and penal institutions in Council of Europe Member States. Information on non-custodial sanctions and measures are collected under the project SPACE II.

Data is collected by means of two questionnaires sent every year to the Penitentiary administrations and to the Probation authorities (or equivalent bodies of the Ministries of Justice).

The Economic and Social Council, in its resolution 1984/48 of 25 May 1984, requested that the Secretary-General maintain and develop the United Nations crime-related database by continuing to conduct surveys of crime trends and the operations of criminal justice systems. The major goal of the United Nations Surveys on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems is to collect data on the incidence of reported crime and the operations of criminal justice systems with a view to improving the analysis and dissemination of that information globally. The survey results provide an overview of trends and interrelationships between various parts of the criminal justice system to promote informed decision-making in administration, nationally and internationally.