Methodology - Justice

Data on data on accused persons, convicted persons and number of judges are obtained from Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic.

Data for international comparison within the European Union are collected from national authorities through the annual United Nations Crime Trends Survey (UN-CTS) in cooperation of Eurostat and UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime).

The number of convicted persons per 100,000 inhabitants is calculated only from persons older than 15 years, i.e. persons criminally responsible. 

The number of newly initiated judicial proceedings is monitored between 1 January and 31 December of a given year. 

Criminal acts are recorded according to the TSK (Tactical-statistical classification) of the Police of the Czech Republic, which partially overlaps with the Criminal Code. Definitions of individual crimes and their inclusion in the TSK and the Criminal Code can be found here.

Caseload (number of cases) - cases handled by a court and incorporated in an appropriate register. One case may involve more persons. 

Convicted person – a natural person ruled guilty and sentenced by the court, when the sentence has already come into force. 

Final decision – a final and conclusive decision (judgement). 

Judges of criminal courts – judge specifically in criminal cases. We further differentiate between judges in civil cases and judges in administrative cases. 

Judicial (trial) proceedings - the second stage of criminal proceedings, which follows the pre-trial proceeding and the filing an indictment. 

Sentences combined with other sentences – imposition of more sentences concurrently within the meaning of the Section 53 of the Criminal Code.  

Suspended sentence of imprisonment – sentence execution is conditionally suspended (by a court) over a probationary period. 

Unsuspended prison sentence - a sentence served in prisons run by the Prison Service of the Czech Republic