An offence may be the infringement of more than one paragraph of the law. The unit is a file at court concerning one person. A court file may include an accusation of more than one offence against one person. Each file is counted once, even if more than one criminal event, at different times and sites, is included. A person accused more than once during the year, is included as many times as the number of files opened during that year.
Any obligation imposed on the defendant by the court is considered a conviction.
A person convicted more than once during the year is counted as many times as the number of convictions during that year. Type of offence . A court file may include accusations of infringement of more than one paragraph of the law. In tabulations, the type of offence is determined according to the most severe paragraph of the law in the entire accusation and conviction, defined by the most severe penalty which may be imposed according to the law. In 1979, the classification of criminal offences which had been in use at the Central Bureau of Statistics since 1964 was updated.