European Sourcebook (ESB) of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics

The European Sourcebook Group is a group of experts who regularly produce the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics.

1st issue (1999)

The first European Sourcebook project began in 1996, when the Council of Europe set up a committee to compile a compendium of Crime and Criminal Justice data from its member states. Information was gathered from 36 European states for the period 1990–1996. This included statistical data as well as information on the statistical rules and definitions on which these figures were based. As a result, the Council of Europe published the first European Sourcebook in 1999.

2nd issue (2003)

A second European Sourcebook project was sponsored by the governments of Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The results were published in December 2003. The publication reports on law enforcement data for 40 European states for the period 1995–2000.

3rd issue (2006)

The third issue was published in June 2006. It was sponsored by France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. This Sourcebook covers the years 2000 to 2003 for 37 states.

4th issue (2010)

The fourth issue is an extended update of the third one and covers the years 2003–2007. In-depth analyses were presented for the year 2006. The basic structure of five chapters was retained (offences and offenders known to the police, prosecution, convictions and sentences, execution of sentences including non-custodial sanctions, survey data). Several chapters were revised and expanded in various respects.

5th issue (2014)

The 5th issue was published in 2014. In-depth analyses were carried out by members of the European Sourcebook Group and published in a special issue of the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research on “Crime and Criminal Justice in Europe” (2018). Taking a European comparative perspective, this issue contains articles on the attrition process within the criminal justice system, trends in police-recorded crime, specific juvenile justice statistics, the development of community sanctions and measures, and the development of homicide offences.

6th issue (2021)

The LINCS project (Linking International Criminal Statistics) was launched for the sixth issue. The project’s goal was to link the Council of Europe’s penitentiary statistics with the criminal justice statistics collected by the members of the European Sourcebook.

The annual penal statistics, better known as SPACE (Statistiques Pénales Annuelles du Conseil de l’Europe), consist of two interlinked projects. SPACE I has been providing annual data on imprisonment and penal institutions since 1983. SPACE II has been collecting data on sanctions and non-custodial sentences since 1992 (annually since 2009).

Further information and publications:
European Sourcebook