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"Justice" statistical office

The "ministerial statistical office for Justice" is the Sub-Directorate for Statistics and Studies (Sous-Direction de la Statistique et des Études: S/D SE) at the Ministry for Justice. Justice-related statistics cover operations of judiciary institutions, delinquency, crime, civil proceedings (private litigation, divorces, adoptions, acquisitions of French nationality, business failures, etc.), and the penal population.

Contents

Main missions

S/D SE designs, produces, presents, and disseminates statistical information from the Justice Ministry.

It contributes to the operations of the supervisory bodies that oversee justice statistics: the Council for Statistics and Studies, which sets guidelines and takes decisions, empowers the Programming Committee to define study programs, prepare schedules, and assess statistical work projects.

Statistical production

Most statistical production is driven by the activity of jurisdictions and covers all aspects such as civil justice, penal justice, penitentiary administration, minors justice, administrative justice, legal aid, and legal auxiliaries.

S/D SED continuously extracts data from sources consisting mainly of sub-products of automated case management.

The office conducts a quarterly survey on current developments in the activity of jurisdictions.

In addition, the office carries out "light-weight" surveys of jurisdictions, non-profit groups offering legal services, and specific categories of defendants.

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Studies and forecasting

Most S/D SE statistical studies are operations-oriented and accompany the pre- and post-implementation phases of legislative and regulatory reforms, particularly with the aim of assessing the impact of changes in the judicial system on litigation.

Measuring judicial activity makes it possible to determine whether resources match court caseloads, to identify characteristics of local contexts, and to assess the quality of justice as a public service.

Studies on specific phenomena, not measurable with the available indicators, are outsourced to universities or research centers.

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Dissemination

S/D SE disseminates statistics in the Chancellerie and makes them available to jurisdictions. It also publishes its own work.

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Status in institution

S/D SE is a unit of the General Secretariat of the Ministry.

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