Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

The accuracy of the statistics on reported criminal offences is considered to be good. The data come from a single administrative register system storing information on all reported crimes. Analyses have shown that approximately 5 percentages of the crimes registered in a calendar year, are committed in an earlier year. Corresponding approximately 5 percentages of all crimes reported committed in a calendar year are not registered until a following year. A general problem in respect of the statistics on reported criminal offences is hidden criminality, which concerns crimes which do not come to the knowledge of the police. It is difficult to give an exact figure for the level of hidden criminality, because it depends among other things on the nature of the crime and the inclination to report crimes. The Ministry of Justice and others regularly conduct victimization surveys, where the respondents are asked whether an experienced criminal offence was reported to the police or not. From these surveys it appears that e.g. 55 percentage of violence incidents in 2022 were not reported to the police. The latest victimization surveys can be found here (in Danish): Offerundersøgelserne 2005-2022

There will often be a time lag between the time where someone submits a report and the time where someone presses a charge. To ensure that as many charges as possible are included in the statistics – also for reports submitted at the end of the calendar year – the data extraction for Statistics Denmark is supplemented with information about charges submitted during the first month of the following calendar year. However, there will be a number of charges pressed after this time. In order to assess the extent of these charges, Statistics Denmark has coupled the information from the register of reports to the Danish Police (Rigspolitiets Anmeldelsesregister) with the information about charges that Statistics Denmark receives from a central register of criminal offences (Kriminalregisteret). You can see the result of this for the years 2011-2020 here Reports and charges

Sampling error

There is no sampling errors as the statistics are compiled on the basis of registers.

Non-sampling error

Analyses have shown that approximately 5 percentages of the crimes registered in a calendar year, are committed in an earlier year. Corresponding approximately 5 percentages of all crimes reported committed in a calendar year are not registered until a following year.

Quality management

Statistics Denmark follows the recommendations on organisation and management of quality given in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and the implementation guidelines given in the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF). A Working Group on Quality and a central quality assurance function have been established to continuously carry through control of products and processes.

Quality assurance

Statistics Denmark follows the principles in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and uses the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF) for the implementation of the principles. This involves continuous decentralized and central control of products and processes based on documentation following international standards. The central quality assurance function reports to the Working Group on Quality. Reports include suggestions for improvement that are assessed, decided and subsequently implemented.

Quality assessment

The accuracy of the statistics on reported criminal offences is considered to be good. The data come from a single administrative register system storing information on all reported crimes. Analyses have shown that approximately 5 percentages of the crimes registered in a calendar year, are committed in an earlier year. Corresponding approximately 5 percentages of all crimes reported committed in a calendar year are not registered until a following year.

A general problem in respect of the statistics on reported criminal offences is hidden criminality, which concerns crimes which do not come to the knowledge of the police. It is difficult to give an exact figure for the level of hidden criminality, because it depends among other things on the nature of the crime and the inclination to report crimes. The Ministry of Justice and others regularly conduct victimization surveys, where the respondents are asked whether an experienced criminal offence was reported to the police or not. From these surveys it appears that e.g. 55 percentage of violence incidents in 2022 were not reported to the police. The latest victimization surveys can be found here (in Danish): Offerundersøgelserne 2005-2022

Data revision - policy

Statistics Denmark revises published figures in accordance with the Revision Policy for Statistics Denmark. The common procedures and principles of the Revision Policy are for some statistics supplemented by a specific revision practice.

Data revision practice

Only final figures are published and are not later revised.