1) Each Member State shall take the necessary measures to establish a system for the collection, production and dissemination of statistics on victims of crime. The statistics shall include data relevant to the application of national procedures on victims of crime, including at least the number and type of reported crimes, the number, the age, sex of the victims and the type of the offence. They shall also include information on how victims have accessed the rights set out in this Directive.

2) Member States shall collect the statistics referred to in this Article on the basis of common disaggregation developed in cooperation with the Commission (Eurostat) and experts in the field of victims rights. They shall transmit this data to the Commission (Eurostat) every three years. The transmitted data shall not contain personal data.

3) The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights shall support Member States and the Commission in the collection, production and dissemination of statistics on victims of crime and in reporting on how victims have accessed the rights set out in this Directive.

4) The Commission (Eurostat) shall support Member States in the data gathering referred to in paragraph 1, including by establishing common standards on counting units, counting rules, common disaggregation, reporting formats, and on the classification of criminal offences.

5) The Member States shall make the collected statistics available to the public. The statistics shall not contain personal data.

6) The collection of data under paragraph 1 shall not affect the dedicated data collection under Article 44 of Directive (EU) …/… [on combating violence against women and domestic violence].’

7) The European Commission, together with its agencies, shall carry out regular data collection exercises relevant to priority issues as determined by the EU Coordinator for victims’ rights and the EU Victims’ Rights Platform.

8) Member States shall take the necessary measures to promote, support and, to the extent possible, fund or facilitate fund-raising for victimological research, including comparative research. Research shall, inter alia, focus on:

a) criminal victimisation and its impact on victims;
b) prevalence and risks of criminal victimisation including factors affecting risk;
c) the effectiveness of legislative and other measures for the support, compensation and protection of victims of crime;
d) the effectiveness of available interventions by criminal justice authorities, victim services and restorative justice programmes.

The Commission’s proposal includes an amended article 28 (Provision of data and statistics). The amendments aim to establish a system for the collection, production, and dissemination of data and statistics on victims of crime and how they access the rights set out in the Directive.

VSE strongly welcomes this new article, which closely aligns with VSE’s calls in its policy paper ‘National framework for comprehensive victim support’[1]. The significant lack of available data on the implementation of and access to rights is repeatedly identified as an impediment to the effective implementation and future development of victims’ rights.

Member States regularly dilute proposals to collate data with respect to justice systems and victims’ rights, despite their importance. This dilution has contributed to the poor implementation of the 2001 Framework Decision on the Standing of Victims by Member States.

VSE fully supports the Commission’s proposal. VSE has suggested extending the proposal, to ensure the development of statistical priorities includes discussions with victims’ experts and that additional, periodic, data collection exercises are carried out on specific topics.

Victims’ rights also require more extensive short and long term research, as is regularly carried out in fields such as health and law enforcement. VSE proposes this research is explicitly recognised in the EU Directive.

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[1] National Framework for Comprehensive Victim Support, Victim Support Europe, 2022, online at: https://victim-support.eu/wp-content/files_mf/1673427018NationalFrameworkforComprehensiveVictimSupportcompressed.pdf