Black on white?: interpretation of figures on insecurity and criminal justice in Belgium

We come across figures about insecurity, crime and punishment everywhere: in the media, on the internet, in political
party programs, etc. But criminographic statistics are produced in different services, which leads to many differences between them
in registration, methodology and scientific quality.

In this reference work, both academics and practitioners guide the reader through the various statistics available in Belgium. At each level of the criminal justice chain, the available source material is given, discussed and evaluated. The figures are contextualised and critically analysed from the perspective of validity, completeness and reliability. Scientific commentary is provided on the summary of the data, their processing into statistics and their use for scientific purposes and/or policy purposes.

This up-to-date overview of criminography is a useful and unique tool for criminologists, policy makers, practitioners, analysts and anyone who works professionally with criminographic figures.

This criminographic manual was created following the post-academic training course "Crime and law enforcement in images" that the editors organised at the VUB.