This report reviews and discusses violence statistics and their problems and possible improvements from various angles. The report is based on the work of the "statistical" subproject of the Nordic Project on Violence: "Violence and its reduction in the Nordic countries" (Våld och våldsreducering i Norden) financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers and carried out by the Nordic councils for crime prevention and the Scandinavian Research Council for Criminology. The Statistics Subproject was to look at three related but originally separate subprojects of the original overall plan:

1. To describe and compare violence with the help of extant statistics

2. To chart variations in violence in the Nordic countries

3. To develop instruments of measuring violence in intimate relations including violence in the family.

With the resources available, the subproject was unable to carry out any of these tasks in a truly systematic and comprehensive manner. However, we hope that the variable material we were able to produce on all these themes can contribute to better accounting for violence and be of help when devising methods for preventing violence. The report describes levels and trends in violence. It touches on problems and solutions in their measurement. Some suggestions are tentative, others are more firmly established and the reader can turn to the research and web pages that are referred to in the reports.