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.
Recorded incidents of Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences were up by 24% or 485 to 2,471 in the year to Quarter 3 (Q3) 2023. Most of this increase was accounted for by Blackmail or Extortion and Robbery from the Person offences.
Crime incidents involving Theft & Related offences were up by 16% or 9,904 to 72,340 incidents over the same period. About four in every ten (42%) of the increase in the number of incidents was Theft from Shops.
Crime incidents involving Fraud, Deception & Related offences were down 27% to 10,629 over the same period mostly due to a fall in incidents of unauthorised transactions and attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone.
Victims of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences fell by 6% in the year to Q3 2023 when compared with Q3 2022. The number of male victims fell by 5% while the number of female victims was down by 8%.
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, some judgement should be exercised by users 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 (20 December 2023) released Recorded Crime Quarter 3 (Q3) 2023.
Commenting on the publication, Jim Dalton, Statistician in the Crime & Criminal Justice Section, said: “Recorded Crime statistics published today for Q3 2023 marks the first quarterly Recorded Crime publication since the lifting of the ‘Under Reservation’ designation in October 2023. (See Editor’s Note below). Recorded Crime statistics published today for July, August and September, (Q3) 2023 showed that Robbery and Theft crimes were up in the year to Q3 2023 compared with a year earlier, while fraud crime was down.
Crime Trends in the Year to Q3 2023
Recorded crime incidents of Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences were up by 24% or 485 to 2,471 in the year to Q3 2023. Most of this increase was accounted for by Blackmail or Extortion and Robbery from the Person offences.
Theft & Related offences were up by 16% or 9,904 to 72,340 incidents over the same period. About four in every ten (42%) of the increase in the number of incidents were Theft from Shops. There were also small increases in crime incidents relating to Damage to Property & the Environment (+3%), Weapons & Explosives offences (+2%) and Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences (+1%).
By contrast, incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related were down by 27% or 4,010 to 10,629 incidents over the same period. This was due mostly to a fall in incidents of unauthorised transactions and attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone.
Nearly all other crime categories fell over the year with the highest rates of decrease being for Kidnapping & Related offences (-15%) and Dangerous or Negligent Acts (-12%). Homicide & Related offences were down by 6% to 64 incidents and Sexual offences fell by 5% to 3,498. Controlled Drugs offences remained virtually unchanged at 17,449 incidents.
Analysis of Changing Crime Trends since 2019
Burglary and fraud crimes showed the largest rate of change between 2019 and 2023.
The number of crime incidents classed as Burglary & Related offences in the year to Q3 2023 was 9,117 and this was less than half (45%) of 16,553 incidents recorded in the year to Q2 2019. By contrast, recorded incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences increased by 36% from 7,821 in the year to Q3 2019 to 10,629 in the year to Q3 2023. In the intervening period, the number of incidents of this crime reached a high of 14,639 in the 12 months to Q3 2022. The rate of change for all other offence types were below 20%.
Crime Trends among Garda Regions in the year to Q3 2023
The number of crime incidents fell across all four Garda regions for four out of the 14 offence groups in the year to Q3 2023. Of these the most notable were Fraud, Deception & Related offences, Kidnapping & Related offences and Dangerous or Negligent Acts.
In a further four offence groups, the number of crime incidents rose across Garda regions and the most notable among these were Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences and Theft & Related offences.
Victims of Assault offences
Victims of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences during Q3 2023 fell by 6% from the corresponding period in 2022. The number of male victims was down by 5% while female victims decreased by 8%.
When you look at the profile of victims by age and sex, the number of male victims of assault fell across all age groups. The highest rates of decrease were among those who were aged 45-59 years (-9%) and under 18 years (-8%) when the incident took place.
The number of female victims of assault fell across all age groups, except those aged 45-59-years. The highest rates of decrease were for those aged 18-29 (-17%) and those aged 60 years or over (-12%) at the time of the incident. The number of victims in the 45-59 year age group increased by 5% over the period.
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 COVID-19.”