Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA
Federal Statistical Office FSO
DepNamebis
19 CRIME
May 2009
Analyses of recidivism
Terminology and definitions
1
Recidivism
The studies are founded on prospective analyses of recidivism based on reconvictions, insofar as
the judgements are recorded in the Register of Criminal Convictions or considered in the criminal
judgements of minors statistics. This is therefore a case of limited criminal recidivism.
Cases of recidivism in the sense of a new report to the police, a new arrest or a new inquiry
against a person previously convicted (or previously reported to the police, arrested or forming
the subject of an inquiry) are not yet possible in Switzerland.
1.1
General definition of criminal recidivism
Criminal recidivism (or reconviction) occurs if, following a reference judgement, anew offence is
committed that leads to a judgement.
Analyses of the recidivism must enable the preventative effect of completed criminal proceedings
to be evaluated. For a new judgement to be considered as a reconviction, it is thus necessary
that at least one of the convicted offences is subsequent to the reference judgement and that it
was committed during the observation period. In some cases, all dates of offences of a new conviction are prior to the date of the judgement reference. These situations are not considered as
recidivism, but as "pseudo-recidivism" (see point 7, p. 5) and are analysed separately.
1.2
Typology of criminal recidivism
1.2.1
Specific vs non-specific
"Specific" recidivism
Reconviction is said to be "specific" if one of the repeat offences is identical to the main offence
of the reference judgement (same article of law).
"Same type" recidivism
Reconviction is said to be of the "same type" if at least one of the repeat offences is of the same
type as the main offence of the reference judgement but not, however, identical (see specific reconviction).
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A different definition is used for each type of offence. For theft, for example, a new conviction is
said to be of the "same type" if at least one of the repeat offences is an offence against property
(art. 137-172ter SCC) other than theft.
Non-specific recidivism
Reconviction is said to be "non-specific" if none of the repeat offences are identical nor of the
same type as the main offence of the reference judgement.
1.2.2
By severity of repeat offences
A hierarchy of offences has been defined taking into consideration the maximum and minimum
punishments foreseen by the law (see point 6 Hierarchy of offences).
"Less serious" repeat offence
A reconviction is "less serious" if the most serious main offence of the recidivism judgement is
considered, by the hierarchy of offences, as less serious than the most serious offence of the reference judgement.
Recidivism of "same severity"
A reconviction is of "same severity" if the most serious main offence of the recidivism judgement
is considered, by the hierarchy of offences, as of the same severity as the most serious offence
of the reference judgement.
"More serious" recidivism
A reconviction is "more serious" if the most serious main offence of the recidivism judgement is
considered, by the hierarchy of offences, as more serious than the most serious offence of the
reference judgement.
2
Criminal history
A person is considered to have a criminal history if, during the observation period prior to the reference judgement, he or she has been tried or released from a custodial sentence (retrospective
recidivism).
3
Statistical population
The statistical population is all of the persons tried in criminal proceedings or released from a
custodial sentence or a measure of enforcement. In fact, it varies according to the source of data
used. The data mainly come from three databases: the register of adult convictions (SUS), the
survey on the execution of sentences and measures (SVS) and that of the conviction of minors
(JUSUS). Given that the information collected in each database does not have the same level of
detail (type of offence, status of foreign nationals...) and that the databases are not from the
same year (1982 for the execution of sentences and measures, 1984 for adult convictions and
1999 for the conviction of minors), the statistical population changes according to the analyses
carried out. In order to compare the recidivism of minors with that of adults, the largest common
denominator with regard to the detail of information must be taken (do not consider offences carrying a fine and committed by foreign nationals) and the years available (from 1999). Differentiated analyses have subsequently been carried out according to the statistical population. The
data available for the differenced sources used are specified below.
3.1
Adult convictions (SAC)
Convictions for crimes or offences pursuant to the Swiss Criminal Code (SCC), the Road Traffic
Act (LCR) or the Narcotics Act (NarcA) for Swiss persons of Swiss nationality, aged 18 or over,
pronounced since 1984.
© FSO Recidivism Terminology and definitions
Only crimes and offences were included in the statistical population, with not all fine carrying offences being recorded in the criminal records. A judgement sanctioning only one or several offences carrying a fine is not generally recorded in the criminal records. Only offences carrying a
fine that are judged in combination with a crime or offence are systematically recorded in the
criminal records (see Rules for recording in the criminal records).
The classification of offences recorded only allows a distinction to be made between offences
carrying fines, crimes and offences for the four main laws (Swiss Criminal Code (SCC)), the Narcotics Act (NarcA), the Federal Act on Foreign Nationals (FNA) and the Road Traffic Act (RTA)).
For this reason, offences under additional federal acts were withdrawn from the statistical population used for the basic analysis. Some special analyses can nonetheless be carried out for this
type of offence and are presented under the heading "Analyses".
For the adult recidivism studies, only persons with Swiss nationality were included. The statistical
data from the Criminal conviction statistics (SUS) do not enable the determination of how long a
person of foreign nationality has been in Switzerland, whether he/she has a criminal record
abroad, whether he/she left Switzerland after the conviction (following deportation, refused residence permit renewal or emigration, for example), as well as his/her residence status (resident in
Switzerland, person in transit, tourist, cross-border commuter, asylum seeker...). Both studies
carried out by the FSO (Storz, 1996, 2000) show that in terms of criminal convictions, the foreign
population legally resident in Switzerland behaved, at the start and and end of the 1990s, in a
similar way to persons with Swiss nationality. Consequently, we believe that even if we consider
only Swiss nationals, the results obtained may be generalised for the entire resident population.
To explain why foreign nationals are not included in the recidivism analyses, some comparisons
between the recidivism rates of Swiss and foreign nationals have been carried out and their results are presented under the heading Cross-sectional topic/recidivism/analyses/nationality.
For convictions with unconditional custodial sentences, information on the reference dates are
taken from the statistics on the execution of sentences and measures (SVS). Convictions with
prison sentences of over three months that cannot be found in the SVS database have not been
included in the statistical population. It is either the case that the person has not been released
following the execution of his or her sentence or that there are coding problems. In both cases,
these convictions would contribute to an increase in the share of false negatives (of persons considered as non-repeat offenders although this is actually the case).
3.2
Criminal judgements of minors (JUSUS)
Criminal judgements for crimes, offences or offences carrying fines pursuant to the Swiss Criminal Code (SCC) and the Narcotics Act. (LStup), and for offences under the Road Traffic Act
(RTA) by minors, Swiss or foreign nationals resident in Switzerland, from 10 or more years ago,
pronounced since 1999.
Offences carrying a fine are collected in the statistics on criminal judgements of minors (JUSUS),
which is not the case for adult convictions (SAC). For cases of analysis only concerning the years
before majority, offences carrying a fine are included. However, if the analyses concern delinquent behaviour at adult age of persons tried as minors, in principle offences carrying a fine are
excluded (except for special analyses).
Information concerning the domicile, in Switzerland or abroad, of foreign minors is available in the
statistics on criminal judgements of minors (residence status). Subsequently, it is possible to only
retain foreign nations resident in Switzerland and to not include consider asylum seekers and foreign nationals domiciled abroad.
3.3
Execution of custodial sentences SVS)
Releases following imprisonment for a measure, a prison sentence or a sentence of penal servitude, or following the revocation of a suspended prison sentence or sentence of penal servitude,
of persons of Swiss nationality, aged 18 or over. The data are available from 1982.
© FSO Recidivism Terminology and definitions
For recidivism analyses of persons released following imprisonment, only persons with Swiss nationality have been included. The data from the statistics on the execution of custodial sentences
(SVS) do not allow a distinction to be made, as is the case for the criminal conviction statistics
(SUS), between foreign nationals resident in Switzerland or abroad.
For analyses concerning all persons convicted or released, detentions or fine conversions are not
taken into account. This is because these penalties concern offences carrying fines, and the latter are excluded from the basic analysis. As a result, the proportion of repeat offenders having
only infringed the Federal Act on the Military Service Exemption Tax, punished by detention (act
revised in 1995), is excluded from the analysis. Similarly, fine carrying offences punished by detention pronounced on the basis of the Narcotics Act (drug consumption, art. 19a LStup), of the
Federal Act on Public Transport (fare-dodging), of offences against assets of minor importance
(art 172ter SCC), of offences against the law on Road Traffic Act (RTA) as well as all offences
against cantonal laws, are not taken into account. Analyses only concerning persons released
from a custodial sentence, including all forms and reasons for imprisonment, were carried out
separately and are presented under the heading "Recidivism/Data-indicators/Released persons".
4
Reference dates
4.1
Reference date for the reference judgement
The date retained for the reference judgement is the judgement date for all criminal decisions that
have not resulted in imprisonment. In the case of adult imprisonment, the reference date is the
release date. In the case of a conditional release, the date of the conditional release is selected.
4.2
Reference date for the recidivism
The date retained for the recidivism is the date of the first offence that resulted in a new conviction, and not the judgement date of the new conviction.
In the event that the date of the first repeat offence is prior to the reference judgement date, and
the date of the last offence afterwards, the reference date for the repeat offence is the day after
the reference judgement date. If all the offence dates of a new judgement are before the reference judgement date, the situation will not be considered as a repeat offence but as "pseudo-recidivism" (see point 7, p. 5) and is analysed separately.
4.3
Reference dates for criminal record
The date retained for the criminal records is that of the prior judgement, or that of the release following previous imprisonment, the closest to the reference judgement.
5
Observation period
The minimum observation period is three years. The maximum duration is only limited by the
possibilities offered by the databases.
The analyses have shown that half of persons who commit repeat offences do so within the first
three years of the reference judgement (or release) and that all the changes seen in the recidivism rate since 1987 are due to changes that have occurred during the first three years. After
three years, the quarterly recidivism rates are identical from one year to the next. A longer observation period is therefore not necessary in general in order to observe the development of recidivism. The observation period for previous convictions (retrospective recidivism) is generally the
same as that for the reconvictions (prospective recidivism).
© FSO Recidivism Terminology and definitions
6
Hierarchy of offences
While some countries have established all of their criminal statistics based on a hierarchy of offences, since 1974 the FSO has recorded statistics on all of the offences mentioned in a judgement. Today, all the statistics in the areas of crime and criminal law are organised in line with this
principle, because the latter provide a more accurate depiction of reality without excluding the
use of hierarchy if needed.
There is a need for hierarchy should we wish to study the climb or the fall in the number of offences in the history of those convicted or punishments pronounced during successive judgements.
A hierarchy of offences is established taking into account, for each offence, the maximum and the
minimum of the sentence foreseen by law: duration in years for custodial sentences and day-fine
duration for financial penalties. Every offence thus corresponds to a value on the scale of offences. An offence is considered as more serious than another if the duration of the maximum
penalty is greater than the other. If the maximum duration is identical, the minimum duration is
also taken into consideration: the offence with the highest minimum duration is considered to be
most serious. No distinction has been foreseen for offences with the same maximum and minimum. In this type of situation, the offences are considered to have the same degree of severity.
This scale of offences is based on the new Law of Penal Sanctions that entered into force on 1
January 2007.
7
Pseudo-recidivism
Analyses of the recidivism must enable the preventative effect of completed criminal proceedings
to be evaluated. For a new judgement to be considered as a reconviction, it is thus necessary
that at least one of the convicted offences was committed after the reference judgement date.
Given that recidivism analyses are always based on the observation period (see point 5, page 4),
some repeat offences are not considered as such if all the offences have been committed after
the end of the observation period. The two theoretical cases considered as pseudo-recidivism are
thus when the dates of the repeat offence are prior to the reference judgement date and when
they are after the end of the observation period. Results on this subject are presented under the
heading "Recidivism/Analyses/Analyses for establishing standards of use".
Information:
Federal Statistical Office FSO
Section Crime and Criminal justice
Espace de l'Europe 10, CH-2010 Neuchâtel
Telephone : +41 58 463 62 40
e-mail from the section : CRIME@bfs.admin.ch
© FSO Recidivism Terminology and definitions