Back to Top

 Skip navigation

Persons Detected and Sanction Types

    These statistics are categorised as Under Reservation. This categorisation indicates that the quality of these statistics do not meet the standards required of official statistics published by the CSO.

    For further information please refer to the Under Reservation FAQ page.

Open in Excel:

Crimes where a suspected offender has been identified and sanctioned may be recorded as detected. Valid sanctions include charge or summons, formal and informal cautions, and fixed penalties for certain offences. A crime may have more than one suspected offender and they may be sanctioned by different means.

There are some limited circumstances where a detection is allowed but a suspected offender is not sanctioned, e.g. the offender dies before they can be prosecuted, or the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) decides that prosecution is not in the public interest. These circumstances are outlined in the An Garda Síochána Crime Counting Rules document, and these exceptions must be centrally validated by GISC (Garda Information Services Centre) since the introduction of the PULSE 7.3 upgrade. As the PULSE upgrade happened in February 2018, the majority of the incidents in the column Decision not to Sanction/Sanction Type not Recorded relate to January and February incidents.

37% of all cautions were issued to Group 13 (Public order and other social code offences) and 35% to Group 8 (Theft and related offences). For other crime types, the use of a charge or summons is more likely to be the sanction applied.

Table 6.1 shows the number of persons detected for crimes reported in 2018 and the method of sanction used.

Table 6.1 Persons detected for crimes reported in 2018 classified by offence group and sanction type

Charge or SummonsAdult CautionJuvenile CautionCaution (other)Fixed Charge Notice / Fixed Penalty NoticeDecision not to Sanction
/ Sanction Type not Recorded
01 Homicide Offences9700003
02 Sexual Offences740110015
03 Attempts/Threats to Murder, assaults, harassments and related offences73910107
06 Robbery, Extortion and Hijacking Offences9303004
07 Burglary and Related Offences87010003
08 Theft and Related Offences76913002
10 Controlled Drug Offences9206002
12 Damage to Property and to the Environment71716105
13 Public Order and other Social Code Offences68794101

Go to next chapter: Fixed Charge Notice and Fixed Penalty Notice Sanctions