Several manuals and guidelines for improving criminal justice statistics have been issued by the United Nations Statistics Division. The most recent among these is the Manual for the Development of a System of Criminal Justice Statistics, prepared by the Statistics Division in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI).

Statistics on public order and safety, offenders and their victims are often derived from administrative recording systems. The most common sources of these statistics are administrative records generated by the police, prosecution, court, prison and non-custodial components of the criminal justice system in the conduct of their operations. Another source of statistics are sample surveys, such as crime victim surveys.

At the international level, statistics related to public order and safety and offenders and their victims are collected and disseminated by the UNODC, in collaboration with the UNICRI.