Data compilers – Description: At international level, data on intentional homicides are routinely collected and disseminated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) through the annual UN-Crime Trend Survey (CTS) data collection. UNODC partners with regional organizations in the collection and dissemination of homicide data, respectively with Eurostat in Europe and with the Organisation of American States in the Americas. WHO collects data on intentional homicide in the framework of regular data collection on causes of death . In this context, data on deaths by assault are considered as intentional homicides.

Violent death is widely seen at the international and national levels as the most extreme form of violent crime and gives insight into the levels of security in a given country. Monitoring intentional homicides is necessary to better assess their causes, drivers and consequences and, in the longer term, to develop effective preventive measures.

In several countries, two separate sets of data on intentional homicide are produced, respectively, from criminal justice and public health/civil registration systems. When they exist, figures from both data sources are reported. When data are not available from either criminal justice or from public health/civil registration, modelled estimates are used.

As per the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS), intentional homicide is defined as the unlawful death inflicted upon a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury.

Producing accurate counts on the number and causes of death among children and adolescents is particularly difficult. Such deaths may not be systematically recorded by criminal justice or vital registration systems, or age disaggregated data may not be available. Data on victims are often compiled in broad age categories that do not allow for the calculation of specific statistics on children. Additionally, determining cause of death, particularly when victims are very young, can be challenging even in countries with advanced and well-functioning health and registration systems. Registration systems that are operating effectively compile vital statistics on the occurrence of births and deaths during a given period. These data are then combined with figures obtained through medical and police records resulting from the certification of causes of individual deaths and the investigation of criminal cases. However, in many countries, administrative data pertaining to intentional injuries and deaths are not systematically collected, may not be accessible or may not be adequately compiled across sources. Calculating reliable figures from these basic counts is often not possible due to weaknesses in data collection systems, such as incomplete coverage or misrepresentation of the events.

Numerator: Number of victims of intentional homicide in a given year.
Denominator: Resident population in the same year.

Recommended disaggregation for this indicator are:
– sex and age of the victim and the perpetrator (suspected offender)
– relationship between victim and perpetrator (intimate partner, other family member, acquaintance, etc.)
– means of perpetration (firearm, blunt object, etc.)
– situational context/motivation (organized crime, intimate partner violence, etc.)

WHO produces estimates for countries where national data on homicide are not available from
neither criminal justice nor from public health/civil registration. These estimates are used when compiling the global dataset and produce estimates of missing values (for information on the methodology, see WHO-UNDP-UNODC, Global Status Report on Violence Prevention 2014).

WHO produces estimates for countries where national data on homicide are not available from neither criminal justice nor from public health/civil registration. These estimates are used when compiling the global dataset and produce estimates of missing values (for information on the methodology, see WHO-UNDP-UNODC, Global Status Report on Violence Prevention 2014).

UNODC and WHO are working together to develop a common approach to produce joint UNODC- WHO homicide data series at country, regional and global level.

Global and regional estimates are calculated as weighted averages of national data, with weights provided by the national resident population.

Discrepancies might exist between country produced and internationally reported counts of intentional homicides as national data might refer to national definition of intentional homicide while data reported by UNODC aim to comply with the definition provided by the ICCS (approved in 2015 by Member States in the UN Statistical Commission and the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice). UNODC makes special efforts to count all killings falling under the ICCS definition of intentional homicide, while national data may still be compiled according to national legal systems rather than the statistical classification. The gradual implementation of ICCS by countries should improve quality and consistency of national and international data.

Intentional homicide rates may also differ due to the use of different population figures.

Considering data collected by both UNODC and WHO, national data on homicide are available for 174 countries (at least one data point between 2009-2013) . Time series data on homicide suitable for monitoring are available for 141 countries (at least 3 data points, the most recent between 2011-2013).

2010-2014

Two separate sources exist at country level: a) criminal justice system; b) public health/civil registration. UNODC collects and publishes data from criminal justice systems through its long-lasting annual data collection mandated by the UN General Assembly (UN Crime Trends Survey, UN-CTS); WHO collects and publishes data produced by public health/civil registration. The data collection through the UN-CTS is facilitated by a network of over 130 national Focal Points appointed by responsible authorities.

Currently, when national data on homicide are not available from neither of the two types of source above, estimates produced by WHO are used.

UNODC and WHO are working together to develop a common approach to produce joint UNODC-WHO homicide data series at country, regional and global level.

At international level, data on intentional homicides are routinely collected by UNODC through the annual UN-CTS data collection. As requested by the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, over 130 Member States have already appointed a UN-CTS national focal point that delivers UN- CTS data to UNODC. In most cases these focal points are national institutions responsible for data production in the area of crime and criminal justice (National Statistical Offices, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, etc.). For countries that have not appointed a focal point, the request for data is sent to permanent missions in Vienna. When a country does not report to UNODC, other official sources such as authoritative websites, publications, or other forms of communication are used.

Homicide estimates from WHO are currently used when no other source on homicide is available. Once consolidated, data are shared to countries to check their accuracy.
When data and related metadata are available, some adjustments are made to data in order to assure compliance with the definition of intentional homicide as provided by the ICCS. National data on types of killings that are considered as intentional homicide by the ICCS, while being classified under a different crime at country level, are added to national figures of intentional homicide. This can be done only when detailed data on such types of killings (e.g. serious assault leading to death, honor killing, etc.) are available.

As for UNODC data dissemination policy, data for SDG monitoring will be sent to countries for consultation prior to publication.

III-IV quarter 2016

Second quarter 2017 (data for 2015)

Data on intentional homicide are sent to UNODC by member states, usually through national UN-CTS Focal Points which in most cases are national institutions responsible for data production in the area of crime and criminal justice (National Statistical Offices, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, etc.). The primary source on intentional homicide is usually an institution of the criminal justice system (Police, Ministry of Interior, general Prosecutor Office, etc.). Data produced by public health/civil registration system are sent to WHO through national health authorities.

www.unodc.org

UNODC Homicide Database (https://data.unodc.org/), UNODC, Global Study on Homicide 2013; WHO- UNDP-UNODC, Global Status Report on Violence Prevention 2014); UNODC, International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes – ICCS, 2015

Violent death is widely seen at the international and national levels as the most extreme form of violent crime and gives insight into the levels of security in a given country. Monitoring intentional homicides is necessary to better assess their causes, drivers and consequences and, in the longer term, to develop effective preventive measures.

In several countries, two separate sets of data on intentional homicide are produced, respectively, from criminal justice and public health/civil registration systems. When they exist, figures from both data sources are reported. When data are not available from either criminal justice or from public health/civil registration, modelled estimates are used.

Producing reliable estimates of the number and causes of death, particularly among children and adolescents in both conflict and non- conflict settings, is difficult as age disaggregated death registration data in many countries are not systematically collected, accessible, adequately compiled, complete or accurate. Determining cause of death, particularly when victims are very young, can be especially challenging even in countries with advanced and well-functioning health and registration systems. For these reasons, the assessment of trends in child deaths due to violence from official records is limited by the lack of reliable data for most countries.

For indicator 16.1.1, data disaggregated by age are not currently available in the global SDG database and therefore estimates of the number of child victims cannot be produced. This is the rationale for classifying this indicator as no data in the country profiles.

Up until March 2019, indicator 16.1.2 was classified as tier III meaning there was no established methodology for collecting these data. Following the reclassification to tier II, a global SDG database with country values will be developed, but in the meantime, the indicator has been classified in the country profiles as no data.