Following the publication of the fifth Review of the Quality of Crime Statistics in October 2023, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has lifted the 'Under Reservation' categorisation around Recorded Crime Statistics. This is possible because An Garda Síochána have introduced a range of quality measures over the last number of years which have resulted in sustained improvement in the quality of the underlying crime data. These changes give a level of assurance to users that they can rely on Recorded Crime Statistics.
For further information see our Lifting of Under Reservation Categorisation for Recorded Crime Statistics FAQ page.
To provide more timely estimates of re-offending, this chapter provides data that relate to custodial releases that took place in 2023. To provide these estimates it is necessary to only include offences that took place a year after release and where the offender has secured a court conviction resulting in reconviction within a further year. Although this method loses coverage of a proportion of re-offending incidents and resulting convictions (as we only look at one year rather than three years) it allows the analysis to come forward to reference year 2023.
Figure 3.1 below shows the time periods and process of establishing these re-offending indicators for the prison re-offending of individuals released in 2023 (one-year re-offending). The one-year re-offending period relates to individuals released in 2023. The time period for a re-offence to occur is one-year (2024) and a further year is left for court decisions (convictions / acquittals) to take place.
Note: Fine sentences are conditional custodial sentences in which custody is avoided when a fine is paid to the court by the convicted offender.
In 2023, slightly more than four out of ten (42%) individuals released from custody re-offended within a year of being released. This was a slight decrease of two percentage points when compared with the same re-offending estimate for 2022 (44%). Overall, there has been a reduction in one year custodial re-offending of seven percentage points since 2016 (See Figure 3.2 and Table 3.1).
In 2023 just under six out of ten (58%) of individuals aged under 21 at the time of release re-offended within a year. In comparison, almost two-thirds (63%) of individuals in the same age category that were released in 2022 re-offended within a year. There was a slightly smaller decrease in the proportion of 21-25 year olds who re-offended within 12 months of release between 2022 and 2023. In 2023, over half (52%) of those released re-offended while in 2022 it was just one percentage point higher (53%) (See Figure 3.3 and Table 3.2).
More than two-thirds of individuals (67%) released from custodial sentences in 2023 relating to Public Order offences re-offended within a year of their release. Although this is a slight decrease when compared with the same category for individuals released in 2022 (68%), it remains the highest of the offence categories being measured.
Individuals released from custodial sentences relating to Theft had the highest number of releases (578 out of the 2,987) with 338 or 58% of these individuals linked to a re-offence in the year following their release. In contrast, individuals released from custody for serving sentences in relation to Sexual (12%) or Fraud (18%) offences were the least likely to re-offend (See Figure 3.4 and Table 3.3).
Note: The offence type relating to the custodial period that individuals are released from does not always correspond to the same re-offence type for the individual. Table 2.3 of this release provides details of three year re-offence types.
Of the 1,251 individuals who re-offended within a year of release in 2023, almost two-thirds (65%) re-offended in just three offence groups - Theft (373), Public Order (319), and Controlled Drug (124) related offences. Individuals released from custody in relation to offences linked to Homicide (3), Sexual offences (21), and Assaults (189) were also most likely to re-offend in Public Order (26%), Theft (21%), or Drug related (11%) offences (See Tables 3.3 & 3.4).
Over half (56%) of individuals released in 2023, who spent three to six months in custody prior to release re-offended within a year of being released. This is a small reduction when compared to the same indicator for releases that took place during 2022 (60%). Just over one-third (34%) of individuals that served custodial sentences greater than 12 months re-offended within a year following their release (See Figure 3.5 and Table 3.5).
Just under one in three (29%) of re-offences that took place within a year of release from custody in 2023 resulted in a re-comital for the individual. This has been an increase when compared to the custodial sanction for 2022 (25%). More specifically the highest levels of re-committals took place amongst re-offenders released for offences related to:
In contrast, the lowest substantial category for custodial re-committal was seen in offences linked to Public Order. Just over one in ten (12%) of individuals released from custody for Public Order offences received a custodial sentence for their re-offence (See Figure 3.6 and Table 3.6).
Note: Custodial sanctions cover all court outcomes that indicate individuals were detained for any period of time for their re-offending offence. Non-custodial outcomes include a variety of sanctions such as disqualification (mostly associated with driving or licence related offences), fines, probation supervision or suspended sentences that can result in custody if conditions set out by the court are not adhered to. Further details are available in the Background Notes of this release.
The Mid-West (52%) region had the highest levels of one-year re-offending across Ireland in 2023, and Clare (63%) was the county with highest individual county re-offending rate. Longford (15%), Leitrim (22%), and Donegal (24%) had the lowest recorded county re-offending rates which are calculated by using the location that individuals recorded living at the time of their release (See Map 3.1 and Table 3.7).
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