Facts about security and justice challenges (GSDRC Helpdesk Research Report 1273)
This examines access to security and justice services, poor people’s demands for security and justice and victims of crime and violence
Abstract
Query
What is the recent evidence on the scale of security and justice challenges worldwide? Identify available facts and figures in the literature on: (1) access to security and justice services; (2) poor people’s demands for security and justice; (3) victims of crime and violence.
### Summary
There are a number of challenges for security and justice around the world and several factors to consider. Some of the global statistics included in the report are:
- A gap in access to justice exists for a majority of the people in the world, perhaps even as many as two thirds, according to an estimate by the Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law.
- Preventing and redressing violence against women and girls is now on the public policy agenda, but abuse and violence against women and girls is still widespread, with persistent impunity for sexual and gender-based violence, reports UN Women in their 2015 flagship report and the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders
- Multiple opinion surveys worldwide show the importance of rule of law for citizens. In the global MY World survey, out of nearly 8.5 million respondents, over 3 million people have voted for protection against crime and violence, making it the 6th top priority that matters most to people.
- Half a million people die violently each year in conflict and non-conflict settings, according to the 2015 Global Burden of Armed Violence report (Geneva Declaration Secretariat, 2015), with homicide rates remaining on average 2.5 times higher in low and lower middle income countries than high income countries in 2013 (United Nations 2015b).
- Economic costs of homicide for low and middle income countries are estimated to reach on average 1.71 per cent of a country’s GDP (Fearon and Hoeffler 2014).
- One in three women reports having experienced physical and/or sexual violence (WHO et al 2013). Most of this violence is by intimate partners and intimate partner violence tends to be higher in low- and middle- income countries (WHO et al 2013).
Citation
Carter, B. Facts about security and justice challenges (GSDRC Helpdesk Research Report 1273). Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK (2015) 19 pp.
Links