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1. Historical background
2. Bibliography
1. Historical background
This historical background is a summary of the article by Julie Louette, Xavier Rousseaux, Axel Tixhon, Frédéric Vesentini, « Les statistiques judiciaires belges et leurs ancêtres (1794-2011) », in M. De Koster, D. Heirbaut and X. Rousseaux, Tweehonderd jaar justitie. Historische encyclopedie van de Belgische justitie/Deux siècles de justice. Encyclopédie historique de la justice belge, Bruges, La Charte, 2015, 70-92.
1794-1830 : The French and Dutch periods or the genesis of Belgian judicial statistics
The interest in judicial statistics was born at the same time as the first modern centralized States. It is under the French regime (1794-1815) that the first statistics appear in 1812 as general statistics to guide state policy and “glorify” the revolution. The Dutch period (1815-1830) follows on from the French period.
1831-1845 : The founding of the Belgian State and the golden age of judicial statistics
The Belgian Revolution of 1830 perpetuates the statistical tradition begun during the French period. A statistical office is founded by the Provisional Government within the Ministry of the Interior. The first statistics produced by the nascent Belgian state are court statistics for the years 1826 to 1830, according to the model of the statistics of the end of the Dutch period.
Judicial statistics played an essential role during the running-in period of the young Belgian state. Politicians will be able through these to monitor the functioning of justice and more generally that of society. Allowing synthesis, in a few tables, of the larger realities, statistics are used to resolve the most diverse problems. They don't just represent the facts, they replace it thanks to the artifices of arithmetic accuracy.
1850-1870 : Birth and development of prison statistics
After the years 1850, this fascination with numbers did not last. Collections of statistics cease to be at the heart of the debate. This lack of interest is manifested both in their increasingly stereotyped presentation and in their slower publication rate.. Their role in shedding light on contemporary issues and controversies is fading. In this context, the objective of judicial statistics is changing : it is no longer a matter of speaking but more of showing ; in the image of prison statistics, which is experiencing growing development. Proponents of solitary confinement thus use statistics to show the success of this model and plead in favor of its extension.
1870-1898 : Crisis of judicial statistics and reform of penal science
Formerly within the remit of the Ministry of the Interior, the publication of statistics is resumed, in 1873, by the Ministry of Justice in order to measure the impact of the reform of the Penal Code of 1867 on the functioning of the judicial system. Judicial statistics have seen their publication increase between 1878 and 1888 but the presentation of the tables is still not commented on synthetically and these turn out to be, with a stereotypical appearance, a significant gap in regard to judicial reality. During this time, the Chambers lean, yet, on fundamental questions on judicial organization, but statistical tables are unusable, which will result in the abandonment of publications during the following decade.
This era of decline corresponds to a period of socio-economic crisis and a dramatic evolution of the figures of “crime”. From 1873 to 1893, the number of convictions continues to increase. The Belgian judicial policy and its policy of cellular imprisonment is then called into question by a series of political and social observers. This situation will trigger the decline of criminal statistics as it is carried out in the 19th century.. It will be necessary to wait for the following century to witness its rebirth.
Indeed, the significant increase in crime has reintroduced the criminal question at the center of the debate. Judicial statistics not knowing how to identify the causes of this increase in crime, Parliament and the Ministry of Justice became aware of the need to reinvent a statistical tool worthy of the name at a time when Adolphe Prins' "social defense" asserted itself as a new doctrine in the fight against crime, now focused on the dangerousness of the criminal and the protection of society.
During this crisis in judicial statistics, penal science as well as its statistics are being reformed in a context of development of criminology. The works of Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), then considered as the figurehead of the Italian Positivist School, and those of Alexandre Lacassagne (1843-1924), leader of the French School known as the “Social Environment” are part of a “criminal anthropology” of which the “measurement of the criminal man” is a central practice. The reworking of statistics at the beginning of the 20th century was particularly inspired by the ideas defended by these two movements..
A second factor of reform in penal statistics is its internationalization. As its pioneer,, Adolphe Quetelet, in 1853, founded the first International Statistical Congress. However, the momentum wanes 1870. To get out of this impasse, an International Statistical Institute (INS) is created in 1885 so that statisticians from different states can reflect collectively on the statistical methods put in place. Belgium will play, within this institute, a leading role in this organization.
This reform, born from the decline of dying statistics and nourished by the context of the development of criminology and the internationalization of statistical science, will see the birth of a new Belgian judicial statistics, imagined in 1898 by Charles de Lannoy, Head of the Statistics Office of the Ministry of Justice. This new version, fundamentally different from previous versions, sees its first volume published in 1900.
1899-1920 : The new boom of judicial statistics
At the beginning of the 20th century, the number of statistical volumes is exploding: twenty annual volumes appear from 1900, covering the period 1898 to 1920. In 1914, an annual volume comprises nearly 300 tables and comments pages.
Despite the outbreak of the First World War and the difficult access to the activity of certain institutions in some regions, the statistical enterprise resists the German occupation. The volume of 1914 is published in 1916. Those from 1915 and 1916 will appear in 1920 and 1921. In 1922 a much more detailed volume of 1919 is published. Consequence of the war : from January 1920, the statistics include the cantons of Eupen, of Malmédy and Saint-Vith.
Finally, please note that the first bilingual version appears in 1924 (volume of 1920).
1921-1943 : The statistical gloom of the interwar period
Paradoxically, the data gets leaner from 1921, after the Great War. The introductions are no more than a summary of the data without explanation of the modifications made : the territorial presentation disappears for several series, the distinction between administrative statistics and prisoner statistics vanishes in 1930, crime statistics are limited after 1920 to individual convictions and abandon individual offenses. Symbol of this statistical gloom, the latest annual volume (1930) is published in 1934 four years behind schedule. We must wait 1942 for the publication of the following volume which covers the years 1931-1940.
It is therefore with the war and post-war period that the statistics will be belatedly updated for the years 1930. They also provide the development of precise statistics relating to litigation and administrative procedures for settling disputes.. Statistics are, in this time of crisis, an effective tool for identifying the major tensions running through the Belgian social body : increase in crime, decline in business activity, increase in requests for separation perceived as a sign of deterioration in the moral state of the population, supply problem. Not to mention that it sheds light on the reaction of the administrations to the Occupation.
1944-1996 : The gradual decline of the series
Post-war statistics show a priority placed on criminal statistics motivated by the achievements of a criminology obsessed with "acting out" and the social dangerousness of behavior.
The Liberation also marked a break with the unitary process of statistical publication. Statistics will no longer be published, as before, in a single statistical volume. Another major fact, the production of statistics changes hands. The Ministry of Justice, producer of statistics since 1900, hands over the reins, with the transfer of the Central Statistical Office (OCS)to the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 1940. The transition to the Ministry of Economic Affairs will lead to a certain lack of interest in this type of statistics.
Disinterest in politics, ignorance of the public, disorganization of its production are all factors explaining the decline of judicial statistics between the years 1960 and 1990. This disorganization is due to poor consultation between the INS and the Ministry of Justice, which weighs on the processes of verification and critical analysis of statistics..
Until the years 1990, the INS continues to publish the series established at the end of the Second World War. However, these no longer contain an introduction to the production methodology and no “how to” data. Step by step, the series end : statistics on adoptions stop in 1966, those on vagrancy and begging and labor courts in 1971 as well as youth protection, agreements, divorce and council of state in 1992. To this date, 11 the 15 post-war series are still published, but only three are complete since 1944. From 1993 to 1996, only statistics of the courts and tribunals still seem, while criminal statistics become statistics of convictions. Judicial statistics are indeed in a period of decline. As a proof, there are more missing data than in 1914 or 1940. In 1996, as child abduction cases shake up Belgian society, the statistical tool is in such disuse that the kidnapping of Laetitia Delhez on 9 august 1996 has never been recorded by published statistics…
"Integration" : leitmotif of the 21st century
From the second half of the years 1980, the Ministries of Interior and Justice, relying on the academic world, work to create integrated criminological statistics. “(manual translation) ‘Integrated criminological statistics’ aim to offer as complete and coherent a view as possible of the flow of data relating to facts and persons who are apprehended by the penal system, and this from the drafting of the report until the execution of the sentence.” The idea is therefore to follow a case or a person through statistics during the four phases of the Belgian criminal process (police, parquet, courts and tribunals and execution of sentences).
The result of this policy is mixed : there already are police crime statistics, statistics on the activity of the public prosecutor's office and courts and tribunals, as well as statistics of court and tribunal decisions. Nevertheless, if some statistics, such as those of the police or the prosecution, are regularly updated, others, such as the statistics of the decisions of the courts and tribunals, are published only until 2005. Real statistics on the execution of sentences are still awaited.
2. Bibliography
For a reading of statistics as a governance tool :
A. Desrosières, Prouver et gouverner. Une analyse politique des statistiques publiques, Paris, La Découverte, 2014.
A. Desrosières, La politique des grands nombres. Histoire de la raison statistique, Paris, La Découverte, 2010.
A. Desrosières, Pour une sociologie historique de la quantification. L’argument statistique I, Paris, Sciences sociales, 2008.
A. Desrosières, Gouverner par les nombres. L’argument statistique II, Paris, Sciences sociales, 2008.
To find out more about the genesis of judicial statistics :
J. Louette, X. Rousseaux, A. Tixhon, F. Vesentini, “Les statistiques judiciaires belges et leurs ancêtres (1794-2011)”, in M. De Koster, D. Heirbaut and X. Rousseaux, Tweehonderd jaar justitie. Historische encyclopedie van de Belgische justitie/Deux siècles de justice. Encyclopédie historique de la justice belge, Bruges, La Charte, 2015, 70-92.
N. Bracke, Een monument voor het land : overheidsstatistiek in België, 1795-1870, Gent, Historische economie en ecologie, 2008.
A. Tixhon, Le pouvoir des nombres. Une histoire de la production et de l’exploitation des statistiques judiciaires belges (1795-1870), 2001 (doctoral thesis in history, Université catholique de Louvain, unpublished).
A. Tixhon, “Contrôler la Justice, construire l’État et surveiller le crime au XIXth century. Naissance et développement de la statistique judiciaire en Belgique (1795-1901)”, in Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, LXXVII, 1999, 965-1001.
X. Rousseaux, F. Stevens, A. Tixhon, “Les origines de la statistique pénale en Belgique (1795-1835)”, in Déviance et société, XXII/2, 1998, 127-153.
A. Tixhon, “Les statistiques criminelles belges du XIXth century : Du crime au criminel. De la société à l’individu. Le chiffre au service de l’État”, in Déviance et Société, XXI, 1997, 223-249.
Methodology for the 20th century :
G. Baclin, F. Vesentini, X. Rousseaux, “Produire, conserver et diffuser les statistiques judiciaires en Belgique (XIX-XXth siècles)”, in Archives et Bibliothèques de Belgique, LXXVII, 2006, 151-188.
Méthodologie de la statistique judiciaire belge, Brussels, National Institute of Statistics, 1979.
L. Viane, “70 ans de statistique criminelle”, in Bulletin de Statistique, LXIV, 1978, 43-75.
R. Ledent, “L’aspect sociologique des statistiques judiciaires”, in Bulletin de statistique, XLIV, 1958, 486-487.
L. Viaene, “La statistique judiciaire de 1826 à nos jours”, in Bulletin de Statistique, XXXV/1, 1949, 3-12.
To address criticism of the statistical enterprise :
C. Vanneste, “De la production à l’exploitation statistique : l’intervention scientifique dans tous ses états”, in Les chiffres du crime en débat. Regards croisés sur la statistique pénale en Belgique (1830-2005), Louvain-la-Neuve, Bruylant-Academia, 2005.
J. Van Kerckvoorde, Een maat voor het kwaad? Over de meting van criminaliteit met behulp van officiële statistieken en door middle van enquêtes, Leuven, 1995.
J. Van Kerckvoorde, Strafrechtsebedeling in België, Deurne, 1993.
P. Mary, “Petite histoire d’une (dés)organisation : les statistiques criminelles en Belgique”, in Journal des Procès, CLXXXVII, 1991, 12‑15.
J. Van Kerckvoorde, Statistieken of statistrikken ? Interpretatiekaders, gebruik en misbruik van kwantificerende informatie, met bijzondere aandacht voor de kwantificerende criminografie, Leuven, 1985.
P. Ponsaers, C. Janssen, “Les travaux de recherche sur la production de l’ordre et le contrôle pénal en Belgique”, in Crime et Justice en Europe, Paris, 1980, 39-79.
P. Robert, “Les statistiques criminelles et la recherche. Réflexions conceptuelles”, in Déviance et Société, I-I, 1977, 3-27.
G. Houchon, “Lacunes, faiblesses et emplois des statistiques criminelles”, in Moyens d’obtenir une meilleure information sur la criminalité, Strasbourg, Comité européen pour les problèmes criminels, 1976, 7-29.
J. Kitsuse and A. Cicourel, “A Note on the Uses of Official Statistics”, in Social Problems, XXI, 1963, 131-139.
For more information on prosecuting authorities :
The website of the public ministry
S. Christiaensen, I. Van Heddeghem, “De statistische grondslag van het beleid van het openbaar ministerie in België en Nederland”, in C. Fijnaut, D. Van Daele (ed.), De Hervorming van het openbaar ministerie, Leuven, 1999, 41-98.
C. Janssen, J. Vervaele, Le Ministère public et la politique de classement sans suite, “Centre National de Criminologie”, XIV, Brussels, 1990.
Page produced by Guillaume Vaneukem as part of an internship in historical communication (UCL, 2nd master in history).