Finding and using research datasets

All ONS data sets related to crime and justice. Includes figures on crime levels and trends for England and Wales based primarily on two sets of statistics: the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime data

Official crime statistics are available for EU Member States, the United Kingdom, EFTA Countries, EU Candidate Countries, and EU Potential Candidates. Covers:
Police-recorded offences by type of crime;
Homicide victims by age, gender, and relationship to offender;
Offenders by justice process stage (suspected, prosecuted, convicted) and by age and gender;
Personnel by institution (police, prosecution, courts, and prisons) by gender;
Legal cases by type and stage;
Prisoners by age, gender and citizenship;
Prison capacity and occupancy.

US National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) provides datasets that can help guide the exploration and extension of research ideas for topics connecting technology and criminology.

International level statistical data on drugs, crime and criminal justice.

Monthly data updates covering: prisons, probation, contracted services, courts, and legal aid.

The Criminal Justice System (CJS) scorecards bring together data from the police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the courts. In collecting and presenting this data in one place, the aim is to increase transparency and understanding of the CJS.

The CIRI Human Rights Dataset contains standards-based quantitative information on government respect for 15 internationally recognized human rights for 202 countries, annually from 1981-2011. It is designed for use by scholars and students who seek to test theories about the causes and consequences of human rights violations, as well as policymakers and analysts who seek to estimate the human rights effects of a wide variety of institutional changes and public policies including democratization, economic aid, military aid, structural adjustment, and humanitarian intervention.

Freedom in the World is an annual global report on political rights and civil liberties, composed of numerical ratings and descriptive texts for each country and a select group of territories. The report’s methodology is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. Comparative and historical data files available for download

Quality of Government (QoG) Institute's open-source datasets and visualisation tools.

The Social and Economic Rights Fulfillment Index (SERF Index) is a rigorous tool for quantitative measurement and analysis regarding countries’ fulfillment of their economic and social rights—the right to food, the right to adequate shelter, the right to healthcare, the right to education, the right to decent work, the right to social security, and protection against discrimination.

The World Justice Project Rule of Law Index® is the world’s leading source for original, independent data on the rule of law. Covering 139 countries and jurisdictions, the Index relies on national surveys of more than 138,000 households and 4,200 legal practitioners and experts to measure how the rule of law is experienced and perceived worldwide.

World Bank: Aggregate and individual governance indicators for six dimensions of governance: Voice and Accountability; Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism; Government Effectiveness; Regulatory Quality; Rule of Law; Control of Corruption.