Date Published: Wed, 28 Sep 2016

CSO publish Q2 recorded crime statistics and second report on the quality of crime statistics

 - Burglaries fell by 26.3%
 - Thefts fell by 12.3%
 - Sexual offences rose by 13%

Non-recording of crime on PULSE shows slight improvement and misclassification of criminal incidents to non-crime fell significantly from 7% to 3%

The CSO today (28th September 2016) published recorded crime statistics for Q2 2016. Among the main findings are:  

• In the 12-month period between June 2015 and June 2016, recorded Burglaries and related offences fell by 26.3% while Thefts and related offences fell by 12.3%.

• In the same period, recorded Sexual offences rose by 13% while Offences against government, justice procedures and organisation of crime (mainly Offences while in custody, Breach of court orders etc.) rose by 11.6%.

Also published today was the CSO’s second report on the quality of crime statistics. The report, which is based on 2015 data, follows last year’s publication (which was based on 2011 data) and involved a comprehensive review of the quality of Garda crime administrative data on PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively).

Commenting Tim Linehan, Statistician, Crime and Criminal Justice, CSO said: “Compared with the quality report published last year the amount of non-recording of crime on PULSE fell very slightly while the degree of misclassification of criminal incidents to non-crime categories such as Attention and Complaints fell significantly (from 7% to 3%) as did the number of crimes incorrectly marked as detected. However, as the issues raised in the previous CSO review of Garda crime recording continue to exist, albeit to a lesser degree, we continue to advise users to consider these issues when interpreting crime statistics.

Based on the samples taken, the CSO analysis shows:

• Around 17% of crime reported to An Garda Síochana in 2015 was not recorded on PULSE.

• One in five non-CAD equipped stations did not keep paper records which could be used to estimate the non-recording of reported crime on PULSE. 

• Some 3% of incidents classified to Attention and Complaints (a non-crime category on PULSE) should have been classified as a crime, generally as either fraud or assault. The equivalent figures for Property Lost and non-crime Domestic Disputes were 1% and 2% respectively.

• Across seven major crime categories (Assault, Burglary, Criminal Damage, Public Order, Robbery, Theft and Unauthorised taking or interfering with a vehicle), an estimated 3% of incidents were incorrectly classified to the wrong crime category while a further 2% of cases had insufficient information to determine the correct classification 

• The status of detected was incorrectly applied to 18% of those crimes marked as detected but without a charge or summons sheet attached. Removing these detections would reduce the overall number of detected crimes by 10%.

The CSO is continuing to work with An Garda Siochana to improve the reliability of the data and will continue this analysis at regular intervals to monitor data quality.” he added.

The Review of the Quality of Recorded Crime Statistics 2016 (PDF 259KB)  is published today along with the Quarterly Crime release

                                                                         
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