Justice Ministerial Statistical Office
The Ministerial Statistical Office of Justice is the Statistics, Studies and Research Service (SSER).
The SSER is linked to the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Justice
The scope of expertise of this Ministerial Statistical Office concerns the functioning of judicial institutions, criminal justice including in its dimension of sentence enforcement, juvenile justice, civil litigation (private disputes, divorces, adoptions, nationality acquisitions, business failures, and so on) and access to law and justice.
Main missions
The SSER designs, produces, enhances, and disseminates statistical information for the Ministry of Justice.
It is responsible for coordinating research within the Ministry
It responds to major institutions, national observatories, and European and international organizations specialized in the collection, processing, and production of statistical information.
Statistical production
The statistical production of the SSER is primarily based on the exploitation of data from court management software and covers all aspects of justice: civil justice, criminal justice, prison administration, juvenile justice, legal aid, legal auxiliaries, and so on.
It also conducts lightweight surveys among jurisdictions, judicial service associations or specific populations of litigants, and exploits the information contained in court decisions, collected by sampling on specific themes.
It occasionally conducts large-scale surveys in the general population to measure the image of justice or measure non-recourse for various disputes.
Studies and forecasting
The statistical studies of the SSER aim to take stock of judicial activity, the evolution of litigation, the monitoring the effectiveness of laws, and the understanding of litigants. They often accompany legislative and regulatory reforms, contributing of the evaluation of public policies.
Studies of particular phenomena, not measurable from available indicators, can be carried out in collaboration with universities or research centers.
Dissemination
The SSER shares data with the general public (including the annual work Références statistiques justice) and studies (notably Infostat Justice or Infos Rapides Justice) on the website justice.gouv.fr, under the Documentation, Ouvrir dans un nouvel ongletStatistics section.
It provides researchers with the main sources of application data, mainly in the criminal field, via the CASD (Secure Access Center of Data).
It also ensures the dissemination of statistics within the Chancellery and the courts and can establish study reports for internal use within the Ministry.