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The purpose of this indicator is to provide a direct measure of the confidence of victims of crime in the ability of the police.

Number of victims of violent crime in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms, as a percentage of all victims of violent crime in the previous 12 months. Reporting to competent authorities is the first step for crime victims to seek justice: if competent authorities are not alerted, they are not in a condition to conduct proper investigations and administer justice. However, lack of trust and confidence in the ability of the police or other authorities to provide effective redress, or objective and subjective difficulties in accessing them, can influence negatively the reporting behaviour of crime victims.

Ministry responsible for justice

Ministry of Human Development

Ministry responsible for justice

Ministry of Human Development

Annual

Percentage (%)

Reporting rates provide also a measure of the ‘dark figure’ of crime, that is the proportion of crimes not reported to the police. Trends in reporting rates of violent crime can be used to monitor public trust and confidence in competent authorities on the basis of actual behaviours and not perceptions.

Competent authorities includes police, prosecutors or other authorities with competencies to investigate relevant crimes, while ‘other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms´ may include a variety of institutions with a role in the informal justice or dispute resolution process (e.g. tribal or religious leaders, village elders, community leaders), provided their role is officially recognized by state authorities.

This indicator can be disaggregated by donor, recipient country, type of finance, type of aid, sector, etc.

Number of victims of violent crime in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms, divided by the number of all victims of violent crime in the previous 12 months (also called the ‘crime reporting rate’).

Both the number of victims of violent crime as well as the number of all victims of violent crime are measured through sample surveys of the general population, most often dedicated crime victimization surveys.

This indicator is used by Ministry of Human Development to provide a direct measure of the confidence of victims of crime in the ability of the police or other authorities to provide assistance and bring perpetrators to justice.

The target relates to the multidimensional concepts of rule of law and access to justice and at least two indicators are required to cover the main elements of access to justice and efficiency of the justice system. The indicator 16.3.1 covers an important aspect of victim’s access to criminal justice, while it doesn´t cover civil or administrative disputes. The indicator as formulated is a standard indicator widely published when a victimization survey is undertaken, but further work is required to enhance a consistent interpretation and application of this indicator. In particular, some important elements of this indicator needs methodological guidance, such as the type of violent crime to include beyond physical assault; counting rules regarding reporting rates (e.g. prevalence-based, incidence-based, based on last victimization experience) and the type of competent authorities to consider.

Victimisation surveys provide direct information on this indicator, as they collect information on the experience of violent crime and on whether the victim has reported it to competent authorities.

All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.