International Journal on Criminology Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2013 | Page 66

Competition Between Those Involved in Public Debate on Crime Statistics
The ONDRP associated itself with INSEE to design an initiative of national
victimization studies according to the mission which was attributed to it in the
recommendations from the Caresche-Pandraud (2002, 39) parliamentarian report which
Frédéric Ocqueteau also calls “the most significant sales argument for the know how of
the logistics unit of the OND” (Ocqueteau 2012). The fruit of the collaboration between
statisticians from INSEE and those from the OND, as decision makers and consultation
of a guidance committee made up of researchers such as Philippe Robert, terminated with
the launch in 2007 of the first “Cadre de vie et sécurité” study.
This study, for which the collection takes place every year since 2007, from January
to April, allowing the ONDRP to introduce itself as a producer of official statistics on
crime offering a multisource approach (administrative data and data from studies) and
multiangle approach (victimization suffered, feeling of insecurity, or observation of crime
phenomena). It has also allowed for France to be put at the same level as other developed
industrial nations in this field (Ocqueteau 2012).
The choice of the date of the publication of the annual report of the OND has, since
2007, been determined by the calendar of the study “Cadre de vie et sécurité”: its initial
results being available as of autumn, the ONDRP set the end of November the date of the
appearance of its report.
It is in this way that in 2010, the ONDRP published its annual report on the
November 23 with, as its main contents, the first results of the fourth “Cadre de vie et
sécurité” study. The next day, the centre for sociological research on law and institutions
relating to criminal issues (the CESDIP) released an announcement 28 online on national
victimization studies. Firstly, it says “The ONDRP has just distributed summary results
of the annual victimisation study cadre de vie et sécurité (CVS) carried out by INSEE at
the start of 2010
Regarding these figures, the scientific world cannot say anything for the moment: the
official ONDRP organises a ban which ensures that INSEE can only communicate data
from the 2010 study to the research centre only in 2011. Only access to data will allow
their thoroughly scientific analysis.”
After that, the CESDIP reminds us that in the middle of the 1980s, with funding from
the ministry for justice, the first national victimization study.”
The team of researchers from the CNRS having led the first victimization study “in
the middle of the 1980s” therefore intervened in public debate on figures relating to crime
the day following the publication of the 2010 annual report in order to affirm in an
announcement that the only condition for “truly scientific analysis” the results from the
“Cadre de vie et sécurité” study made available to research centres including the
CESDIP.
We can consider that these arguments express, in particular, the point of view of
Philippe Robert and Renee Zauberman, since they refer back to it in an article dated
January 31, 2012, on the daily newspaper website le Monde They declare on it that the
measure of crime will not become credible unless a panel of real scientists, socialists in
measuring crime internationally recognized by their peers in charge of establishing the
state of crime by comparing all measures and observing their developments over a
duration of time”.
They refer back to the arguments widely developed in an article which appeared in
March 2009 and telling many details of their own vision of construction of the national
victimization study that they consider as moving away from their area of expertise and
that they consider in particular as “the fruit of interests in common with INSEE
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
28 http://www.cesdip.fr/spip.php?article534
65