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.
The number of recorded crime incidents involving Fraud, Deception & Related offences increased by a fifth (+21% or by 2,153 incidents) in the year to Quarter 2 (Q2) 2024.
Recorded crime incidents of Burglary & Related offences were up by 9% or 838 incidents, while those involving Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences and Weapons & Explosives offences were each up by 8% over the period.
Analysis of Theft & Related offences, which were up by 8% or by 5,354 incidents in the 12 months to Q2 2024, showed that nearly half (49%) of such incidents involved theft from a shop.
By contrast, there were decreases in the number of incidents involving Homicide & Related offences (-15%), Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (-13%), Sexual offences (-12%), and Controlled Drug offences (-7%).
Victims of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences fell by 3% in Q2 2024 when compared with Q2 2023. The number of male victims fell by 4% and the number of female victims was down by 2%.
The CSO published its fifth CSO Review of the Quality of Recorded Crime Statistics in October 2023. As part of this review the CSO has lifted the ‘Under Reservation’ designation from all Recorded Crime data disseminated after Quarter 1 (Q1) 2023.
An Garda Síochána (AGS) has worked over the past number of years to advance the assurance levels that can be provided around Garda PULSE data, and in particular the quality management developments of 2022 and 2023. This work has seen the development of quality assurance processes by AGS over the period which has culminated in the implementation of a more formal data quality management system by AGS.
The recorded crime series has been progressively improving over time with the cumulative impact of the improved data quality, assessment, and assurance measures being seen in a higher data quality level as noted in various CSO reviews in recent years.
Given the new AGS controls for quality checking and reporting, coupled with the CSO reserving the right to do its own reviews, a level of assurance has been provided warranting the lifting of the "Under Reservation” categorisation.
However, users should exercise some judgement when using data produced in the earlier years of the Recorded Crime time series given the legacy quality issues which have been commented on in various reviews. For instance, detections data pre- and post-2018 are not comparable given the improved governance controls introduced in that year. The CSO will continue to inform users of the quality of the data they are using, and of any particular issues which may need to be noted around time series comparability as they arise.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (26 September 2024) released Recorded Crime Quarter 2 (Q2) 2024.
Commenting on the publication, Jim Dalton, Statistician in the Crime & Criminal Justice Section, said: “Recorded Crime statistics published today for April, May and June (Q2) 2024 showed that Fraud crime rose by a fifth (+21%) in the year to Q2 2024. Other crimes were up as well, and these were Burglary (+9%), Robbery (+8%), Theft (+8%), and Weapons & Explosives (+8%). Among those crimes that fell, the largest decreases were in Homicides (-15%), Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (-13%), and Sexual offences (-12%).
Crime Trends in the year to Q2 2024
The number of recorded crime incidents involving Fraud, Deception & Related offences increased by a fifth (+21% or by 2,153 incidents) in the year to Q2 2024.
Recorded crime incidents of Burglary & Related offences were up by 9% or 838 and increased incidents of Burglary (not aggravated) accounted for nearly all of this increase. The number of incidents involving Theft & Related offences rose by 8% or 5,354 incidents and nearly half (49%) of such incidents involved Theft from Shops. Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences were also up by 8% and most of the increase of 195 incidents involved Robbery from the Person.
In contrast, there were decreases in the number of incidents involving Homicide & Related offences (-15%), Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (-13%), Sexual offences (-12%), and Controlled Drug offences (-7%).
Analysis of Changing Crime Trends since 2020
An analysis of crime trends across all the offence groups shows that the 76,501 recorded crime incidents of Theft & Related offences in the year to Q2 2024 was the highest that it has been in the five-year period since 2020. There were 60,253 recorded incidents of this offence type in 2020, and with the onset of the COVID Pandemic, fell to 46,708 incidents by 2021. As Public Health Restrictions eased, there was a sharp increase in 2022 to 57,023 incidents and again in 2023 where there were 71,147 recorded crime incidents.
There has also been significant change in the number of recorded crime incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences over the five-year period. In 2024, the 12,643 recorded crime incidents was 56% higher than those 8,083 recorded in 2020. In between those years, the number of crime incidents increased to 11,398 in 2021 before reaching a high of 16,308 in 2022. In 2023 the number of incidents fell back to 10,490.
Among the other offence categories, the 9,858 recorded incidents of Burglary & Related offences in the year to 2024 was still significantly (31%) lower than the 14,389 incidents recorded at the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020. In 2021, there were 9,002 recorded incidents of this offence type that rose to 9,817 in 2022 before falling to 9,020 incidents in 2023.
For the other offence types, the most notable differences between 2024 and the COVID years lay in Controlled Drug offences. The 16,450 incidents recorded in 2024 was about 28% less than the 22,592 incidents recorded in 2020 and the 22,795 incidents in 2021.
Crime Trends Among Garda Regions in the 12 months to Q2 2024
The number of recorded crime incidents increased across all regions for four out of the fourteen offence groups in the year to Q2 2024. Among these were as follows:
By contrast, the number of recorded crime incidents for a further two offence groups fell across all regions during the same period.
For all other offence groups, the experience across Garda regions was mixed.
Victims of Assault & Related Offences
The overall number of persons recorded as victims of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences fell by 3% to 5,875 incidents between Q2 2023 and Q2 2024. Nearly six in ten (58%) victims were male in Q2 2024 compared with just over four in ten (42%) for female victims. The number of male victims fell by 4% to 3,407 people and the number of female victims fell by 2% to 2,468 people.
When one looks at the age profile of male victims, the results show that the number of victims who were under 18 years when the incident occurred fell by 18% or by 104 persons over the period. The number of male victims aged 18-29 years fell by 5% while those aged 45-59 years were down by 4%. The number of male victims who were at least 60 years old at the time of the incident increased by 9% while those aged between 30 and 44 years were up by 2%.
A somewhat different picture emerged for female victims where the overall fall of 2% in the number of victims was accounted for mainly by falls in the number of victims under 18 years (-9%) and those aged 60 years or more (-16%) when the incident occurred.
Impact of COVID-19 on Data for 2020 and 2021
Data for 2020 and 2021 for some crime categories are likely to have been influenced by the public health restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”