The document submitted appraises the security situation in the Czech Republic in 1998 (in comparison with 1997). The report aims to:
The first chapter contains basic data on crime and developments in individual kinds of crime and security risks. The fundamental objective of the government’s internal security policy is to restrict crime and security risks and improve citizens’ safety. The second chapter therefore contains a set of measures comprising the government’s internal security policy, above all in conceptual work, legislation, international and inter-ministerial cooperation and from the broadest prevention to current work by the Ministry of the Interior and the Czech Police. As the effectiveness of the predominant part of those measures lies in their links with one another, in the first chapter we have only indicated the primary solution to the issue in question. The conclusion of the report consists of a summary and an account of future security risks.
Crimes are recorded in criminal statistics on the basis of notification from citizens or facts ascertained by the police indicating that a crime has been committed. A crime is entered into crime statistics within three days at the latest after establishing the criminal law qualification. Crime statistics provide an official picture of crime in society. They allow comparable criteria on geographical and time differences to be weighed up. They only reproduce a certain part of the actual extent of crime and do not express so-called latent crime. In assessing offenders’ crime, we must take account of the fact that the data only refers to the proportion of crimes cleared up.
Statistical data and analyses of current criminal problems in internal security can be used to support or refute numerous claims when making suggestions for changes in internal security policy. The effectiveness of the fight against crime depends on a range of factors, especially on the status of legislation and crime prevention, the level of international and inter-ministerial cooperation, on society’s social, economic and moral attainments, on the level of awareness of the law in society as a whole, on the Czech Police’s economic and technical resources and on the consensus between political parties on fighting crime. Proposals to improve security and the implementation of those proposals are not therefore a matter for the Ministry of the Interior and Czech Police alone, but also for other authorities and institutions, together with political scientists, sociologists, criminologists and society as a whole.