Recorded Crime Q3 2024

The number of recorded crime incidents relating to Burglary & Related offences increased by 10% or 878 incidents to 9,981 in the year to Q3 2024 while those relating to Theft & Related offences were up by 7% or 5,331 incidents to 77,260 over the same period.

There were also increases in the number of recorded crime incidents relating to Kidnapping & Related offences (+16% or 23), Weapons & Explosives offences (+11% or 297) and Public Order & Other Social Code offences (+3% or 769).

However, recorded crime incidents involving Homicide & Related offences fell by 12% to 75 incidents in the year to Q3 2024. There were also decreases in the number of crime incidents involving Controlled Drug offences (-6%), Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (-7%), Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences (-2%) and Sexual offences (-1%). See Figure 2.1 and Tables 2.1 & 4.1.

Homicides, Sexual offences, Robberies and Public Order offences show the biggest change in Q3 2024 compared with Q3 2023

Table 2.2 compares the number of crime incidents by offence category between Q3 2023 and Q3 2024. While the direction of the change between both quarters for a number of offence categories was the same as the annualised change (termed ‘over the year’ below) in Table 2.1, the scale of change was quite different in a number of instances.

Among those offence categories where the scale of change was quite different were:

• Homicide & Related offences where the number of recorded crime incidents fell by 57% between quarters and were down by 12% over the year (small volumes in this category).
• Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences where the number of recorded crime incidents was down 15% between both quarters compared with a fall of 2% over the year.
• Public Order & Other Social Codes offences where the number of recorded crime incidents was up by 13% between quarters compared to a rise of 3% over the year.
• Kidnapping & Related offences which showed an increase of 8% in the number of recorded incidents between quarters compared to an increase of 16% over the year.
• Controlled Drug offences which showed a fall of 3% in the number of incidents between quarters compared to a fall of 6% over the year.

The only exception was for recorded crime incidents involving Sexual offences which saw a rise of 31% over the quarter compared to a fall of 1% over the year. See Figure 2.2 and Tables 2.1 & 2.2.

Reported crime incidents involving Controlled Drug offences and Dangerous Acts at their lowest over a five-year period

Table 2.3 provides further breakdown by offence type of the total number of recorded crime incidents for the year to Q3 2024 compared with earlier years. Data for 2020 and 2021 are likely to have been impacted by public health restrictions in place at the time due to COVID-19.

There were 16,295 recorded crime incidents of Controlled Drug offences in the year to Q3 2024 and this was lowest over the five year period between 2020 and 2024. In 2020, there were 22,403 recorded crime incidents of this offence type and this went down to 21,416 by 2021. In 2022 and 2023, there was a sharp fall to just over 17,400 crime incidents in each of years.

The number of recorded crime incidents involving Dangerous or Negligent Acts in the year to Q3 2024 was also at its lowest over the five year period. This offence type includes dangerous driving leading to serious injury and driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In 2020, there were 8,861 recorded crime incidents of this type and this fell to 8,123 incidents in 2021 before rising to 8,562 in 2022. The number of recorded incidents fell to 7,548 in 2023 before ending with 7,541 crime incidents in the year to Q3 2024.

By contrast, the number of recorded crime incidents involving Theft & Related offences and Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences were at their highest in the year to Q3 2024. There were 77,260 recorded crime incidents of Theft & Related offences in the year to Q3 2024 which was up from 71,929 incidents in 2023 but far exceeded the levels in the 2020 to 2022 period.

In the year to Q3 2024, there were 24,174 recorded crime incidents involving Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences. While this was slightly higher than the 23,880 and 23,461 incidents recorded in 2023 and 2022 respectively, it exceeded the levels in 2020 and 2021 by more than 4,000 crime incidents. See Figure 2.3 and Table 2.3.