Recorded Crime Q4 2023

The number of recorded incidents of Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences increased by 26% or 531 to 2,601 between 2022 and 2023. This was driven mostly by a rise in incidents of Blackmail or Extortion and Robbery from the Person offences.

Theft & Related offences were up by 12% or 8,169 to 74,144 incidents over the same period. Nearly half (46%) of this was due to a growing number of incidents of Theft from Shops.

There were also small increases in recorded crime incidents relating to Weapons & Explosives offences (+5%), Damage to Property & the Environment (+3%) and Burglary & Related offences (+1%). The number of recorded incidents of Controlled Drug offences virtually remained unchanged over the year.

By contrast, incidents of Homicide & Related offences were down by 19% from 80 to 65 incidents over the same period. This was due mostly to a fall in incidents of Murder.

All other crime categories fell over the year with the highest rates of decrease being for Sexual offences (-11%), Public Order & Other Social Code offences (-8%) and Dangerous or Negligent Acts (-7%). The number of recorded crime incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences fell by 3% to 11,292 over the year. See Figure 2.1 and Table 2.1.

Kidnapping and Fraud offences up but Homicide and Sexual offences fall in Q4 2023 compared with Q4 2022

Table 2.2 compares the number of crime incidents by offence category between Q4 2022 and Q4 2023. For a number of crime categories, the upward or downward trend between both quarters was similar to the year on year changes in Table 2.1 above but there were some exceptions.

For example,

• Kidnapping & Related offences were up 21% between quarters but were down by 5% over the year.
• Incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences were up by 16% between quarters but were down by 3% over the year.
• Dangerous or Negligent Acts rose by 7% between quarters but were down by 7% over the year. See Figure 2.2, Table 2.1 and Table 2.2.

Burglary and Fraud crime levels remain quite different to pre COVID-19 levels

Table 2.3 provides further breakdown by offence type of the total number of recorded crime incidents for 2023 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.

The number of recorded incidents of Burglary & Related offences fell from 16,750 in 2019 to 10,884 in 2020 and then to 8,584 such incidents in 2021 which coincided with COVID-19 public health restrictions in place at the time. As restrictions were lifted, the number of incidents then rose to 9,465 in 2022. In 2023, there were 9,545 incidents but this was 43% less than the levels recorded in 2019.

The number of incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences in 2023 at 11,292 was 43% more than the 7,921 incidents in 2019. The number of recorded crime incidents for this category more than doubled between 2019 and 2021 to 17,124 before falling back to 11,689 in 2022.

For the other offence categories, the largest changes between 2019 and 2023 were in Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (-21%), Controlled Drug offences (-19%) and Kidnapping & Related offences (-17%). See Figure 2.3 and Table 2.3.