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Recorded Crime Detection 2021

Persons Detected and Sanction Types

Males recorded as suspected offenders in majority of detected crimes

Online ISSN: 2711-9971

CSO statistical release, 17 November 2022, 11am

Statistics Under Reservation

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.

A person is termed as the ‘Suspected Offender’ when issued with a charge or summons, a caution, or a fixed payment notice.

As in earlier years, the majority of suspected offenders were male in all crime groups in 2021. See Figure 5.1 and Table 5.1.

Nine in ten (89%) suspected offenders of Homicide offences were male for crimes which were reported in 2021 and have been detected. All suspected offenders of ‘Murder/ Manslaughter/Infanticide’ in the category of Homicide were males (16) while the gender breakdown for ‘Dangerous driving leading to death’ was fifteen males (79%) and four females (21%) for the category. See Figure 5.1 and Table 5.1.

Nearly all (98%) of the 418 suspected offenders of Sexual offences reported in 2021 which are marked detected were male. For crimes of Rape or Sexual Assault, the proportion of male suspected offenders was 99%. See Figure 5.1 and Table 5.1.

Four out of five detected Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments and Related offences incidents (81%) had a male suspected offender. The statistics also show that males were identified as responsible for the vast majority of detected crimes in the following crime categories:

Damage to Property & the Environment (88%)
Controlled Drug offences (90%)
Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences (91%)
Burglary & Related offences (92%)
Weapons & Explosives offences (93%)

However, the suspected offender was female in just over a third of Theft crimes (34%) and just over one fifth of those involving Fraud & Deception (22%). See Figure 5.1 and Table 5.1.

	Male	Female
01 Homicide offences	89	11
02 Sexual offences	98	2
03 Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences	81	19
06 Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences	91	9
07 Burglary & Related offences	92	8
08 Theft & Related offences	66	34
10 Controlled Drug offences	90	10
12 Damage to Property & to the Environment	88	12
13 Public Order & Other Social Code offences	84	17

Table 5.1 Recorded crime suspected offenders (selected offence groups) by year reported and sex of suspected offender, 2021

Just under a fifth of suspected offenders of Sexual offences reported in 2021 were under 18 years when the offence took place

Just under a fifth (18%) of suspected offenders of detected Sexual offences crimes which were reported in 2021 were aged under 18 years when the offence took place – less than half (44%) were aged under 30 and just over a third (36%) of sexual violence offenders were aged 30 to 44. One fifth (20%) were aged 45 years or more. See Figure 5.2 and Table 5.2.

Suspected offenders of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassment & Related offences were aged 18 to 44 in 68% of cases when the offence occurred, while 14% were aged under 18. See Figure 5.2 and Table 5.2.

	Under 18	18-29	30-44	45-59	60 or over
01 Homicide offences	3	37	34	17	9
02 Sexual offences	18	26	36	13	7
03 Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences	14	32	36	15	4
06 Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences	17	46	31	6	1
07 Burglary & Related offences	13	33	44	9	1
08 Theft & Related offences	16	31	40	11	2
10 Controlled Drug offences	9	57	28	5	0
12 Damage to Property & to the Environment	21	37	30	10	2
13 Public Order & Other Social Code offences	10	36	36	15	3

Table 5.2 Recorded crime suspected offenders (selected offence groups) by year reported and age of suspected offender when offence occurred, 2019-2021

Table 5.2 Recorded crime suspected offenders¹ (selected offence groups) by year reported and age of suspected offender when offence occurred, 2019-2020 ²
		Year offence was reported
		2019		2020		2021
ICCS Offence Group/Age of Suspected Offender at Time of Offence		Number	%	Number	%	Number	%

01 Homicide & Related offences		55	100	65	100	35	100
Under 18		0	0	7	11	1	3
18-29		18	33	20	31	13	37
30-44		11	20	24	37	12	34
45-59		19	35	7	11	6	17
60 or over		7	13	7	11	3	9

of which:
	011 Murder/Manslaughter/Infanticide	30	100	35	100	16	100
	Under 18	0	0	3	9	1	6
	18-29	12	40	9	26	4	25
	30-44	8	27	18	51	6	38
	45-59	10	33	3	9	4	25
	60 or over	0	0	2	6	1	6

	012 Dangerous Driving Leading to death	25	100	30	100	19	100
	Under 18	0	0	4	13	0	0
	18-29	6	24	11	37	9	47
	30-44	3	12	6	20	6	32
	45-59	9	36	4	13	2	11
	60 or over	7	28	5	17	2	11

02 Sexual offences		798	100	619	100	418	100
Under 18		179	22	127	21	73	18
18-29		224	28	188	30	109	26
30-44		253	32	200	32	150	36
45-59		102	13	84	14	56	13
60 or over		40	5	20	3	30	7

of which:
	021 Rape & Sexual Assault	670	100	536	100	350	100
	Under 18	151	23	101	19	47	13
	18-29	197	29	170	32	92	26
	30-44	203	30	180	34	133	38
	45-59	83	12	66	12	49	14
	60 or over	36	5	19	4	29	8

	022 Other Sexual offences	128	100	83	100	68	100
	Under 18	28	22	26	31	26	38
	18-29	27	21	18	22	17	25
	30-44	50	39	20	24	17	25
	45-59	19	15	18	22	7	10
	60 or over	4	3	1	1	1	2

03 Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassment & Related offences		8,636	100	8,075	100	7,282	100
Under 18		1,318	15	1,227	15	1,034	14
18-29		3,190	37	2,532	31	2,296	32
30-44		2,694	31	2,845	35	2,621	36
45-59		1,174	14	1,189	15	1,060	15
60 or over		260	3	282	4	271	4

of which:
	031 Attempts/Threats to Murder	432	100	631	100	518	100
	Under 18	24	6	39	6	32	6
	18-29	153	35	211	33	179	35
	30-44	171	40	245	39	211	41
	45-59	65	15	117	19	79	15
	60 or over	19	4	19	3	17	3

	032 Assaults	7,971	100	7,196	100	6,569	100
	Under 18	1,256	16	1,158	16	965	15
	18-29	2,985	37	2,268	32	2,080	32
	30-44	2,440	31	2,524	35	2,343	36
	45-59	1,059	13	1,001	14	942	14
	60 or over	231	3	245	3	239	4

	033 Harassment & Related offences	233	100	248	100	195	100
	Under 18	38	16	30	12	37	19
	18-29	52	22	53	21	37	19
	30-44	83	36	76	31	67	34
	45-59	50	22	71	29	39	20
	60 or over	10	4	18	7	15	8

04 Dangerous or Negligent Acts		7,626	100	7,679	100	7,197	100
Under 18		76	1	84	1	54	1
18-29		2,507	33	2,920	38	2,700	38
30-44		3,203	42	3,219	42	2,904	40
45-59		1,402	18	1,149	15	1,201	17
60 or over		438	6	307	4	338	5

05 Kidnapping & Related offences		50	100	79	100	69	100
Under 18		2	4	4	5	3	4
18-29		17	34	32	41	26	38
30-44		24	48	30	38	29	42
45-59		5	10	12	15	10	15
60 or over		2	4	1	1	1	1

06 Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences		956	100	858	100	558	100
Under 18		240	25	208	24	92	17
18-29		399	42	340	40	258	46
30-44		269	28	269	31	170	31
45-59		47	5	38	4	34	6
60 or over		1	0	3	0	4	1

07 Burglary & Related offences		3,287	100	3,144	100	1,980	100
Under 18		568	17	486	16	265	13
18-29		1,308	40	1,059	34	644	33
30-44		1,141	35	1,222	39	880	44
45-59		247	8	361	12	182	9
60 or over		23	1	16	1	9	1

08 Theft & Related offences		26,309	100	21,444	100	17,237	100
Under 18		4,982	19	3,174	15	2,767	16
18-29		8,872	34	7,008	33	5,274	31
30-44		9,165	35	8,431	39	6,890	40
45-59		2,721	10	2,405	11	1,950	11
60 or over		569	2	426	2	356	2

09 Fraud, Deception & Related offences		2,338	100	2,018	100	1,111	100
Under 18		222	10	175	9	86	8
18-29		788	34	735	36	416	37
30-44		870	37	801	40	425	38
45-59		343	15	237	12	150	14
60 or over		115	5	70	4	34	3

10 Controlled Drug offences		20,484	100	21,645	100	16,820	100
Under 18		1,845	9	1,757	8	1,534	9
18-29		12,703	62	12,356	57	9,662	57
30-44		4,953	24	6,219	29	4,670	28
45-59		921	5	1,226	6	888	5
60 or over		62	0	87	0	66	0

11 Weapons & Explosives offences		2,156	100	2,529	100	1,866	100
Under 18		433	20	431	17	286	15
18-29		841	39	941	37	667	36
30-44		673	31	886	35	679	36
45-59		178	8	239	10	192	10
60 or over		31	1	32	1	42	2

12 Damage to Property & the Environment		5,240	100	5,286	100	4,509	100
Under 18		1,198	23	1,165	22	929	21
18-29		2,056	39	1,986	38	1,679	37
30-44		1,475	28	1,515	29	1,352	30
45-59		398	8	474	9	444	10
60 or over		113	2	146	3	105	2

13 Public Order & Other Social Code offences		29,932	100	27,578	100	25,996	100
Under 18		3,172	11	2,859	10	2,502	10
18-29		11,735	39	9,901	36	9,415	36
30-44		10,018	34	9,906	36	9,369	36
45-59		4,211	14	4,212	15	3,949	15
60 or over		796	3	700	3	761	3

15 Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime		9,688	100	6,593	100	7,095	100
Under 18		48	1	40	1	21	0
18-29		3,735	39	2,325	35	2,173	31
30-44		4,397	45	3,045	46	3,550	50
45-59		1,328	14	1,023	16	1,182	17
60 or over		180	2	160	2	169	2
¹ Data extracted 2nd September 2022.
² 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 CSO.

Open in Excel: Recorded Crime Detection 2021 Table 5.2 (XLS 22KB)

A charge or summons is issued to the majority of suspected offenders

Most suspected offenders were sanctioned with a charge or summons for crimes reported in 2021, with at least seven out every ten crimes in each offence group sanctioned in this way. Table 5.3 provides a breakdown of all suspected offenders for crimes reported in 2021 which have since been detected, by the type of sanction recorded (i.e., charge/summons, caution, fixed payment or other means).

A charge or summons was issued to the suspected offender for:

Nearly all Offences against Government, Justice Procedures and Organisation of Crime (99%)
97% of Kidnapping & Related offences
94% of Homicide offences
90% of Fraud, Deception & Related offences
81% of Sexual offences
75% of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences.

Juvenile cautions can be used for suitable suspected offenders aged under 18. They were the next most common method of sanction. This was applied to the suspected offender for:

15% of Damage to Property & to the Environment
12% of Theft & Related offences,
11% of Weapons & Explosives offences
9% of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences
9% of Burglary & Related offences
8% of Public Order and Other Social Code offences.

Adult cautions were used in:

12% of Controlled Drug offences
8% of Public Order and Other Social Code offences
7% of Theft and Related offences
6% of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments and Related offences.

Fixed charge notices or fixed payment notices were only applied to 9% of suspected offenders of Public Order & Other Social Code offences and 5% of Dangerous or Negligent Acts incidents. See Figure 5.3 and Table 5.3.

	Charge or Summons	Adult Caution	Juvenile Caution	Caution (other)	Fixed Charge Notice / Fixed Penalty Notice	Decision not to Sanction / Sanction Type not Recorded
01 Homicide offences	94	0	0	0	0	6
02 Sexual offences	81	0	8	0	0	11
03 Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences	75	6	9	1	0	9
06 Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences	92	0	5	0	0	2
07 Burglary & Related offences	88	0	9	0	0	3
08 Theft & Related offences	79	7	12	0	0	2
10 Controlled Drug offences	81	12	7	0	0	0
12 Damage to Property & to the Environment	73	6	15	0	0	5
13 Public Order & Other Social Code offences	69	8	8	6	9	1

Table 5.3 Suspected offenders for crimes reported in 2021 classified by offence group and sanction type

Fixed Payment Notices and Fixed Charge Notices may be issued by An Garda Síochána in respect of a wide variety of offences, including many road traffic offences and some public order offences. Fixed charges provide an offender an opportunity to pay a fine in order to avoid prosecution. In December 2020, Fixed Payment Notices were introduced in respect of breaches of COVID-19 regulations.

Next chapter: Fixed Payment Offences

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Recorded Crime Detection 2021

Persons Detected and Sanction Types

Males recorded as suspected offenders in majority of detected crimes

Statistics Under Reservation

Just under a fifth of suspected offenders of Sexual offences reported in 2021 were under 18 years when the offence took place

A charge or summons is issued to the majority of suspected offenders

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Table 5.1 Recorded crime suspected offenders¹(selected offence groups) by year reported and sex of suspected offender, 2021 ²
		Number			%
ICCS Offence Group/Sex of Suspected offender		Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total

01 Homicide & Related offences		31	4	35	89	11	100
of which:
	011 Murder/Manslaughter/Infanticide	16	0	16	100	0	100
	012 Dangerous Driving Leading to death	15	4	19	79	21	100

02 Sexual offences		409	9	418	98	2	100
of which:
	021 Rape & Sexual Assault	345	5	350	99	1	100
	022 Other Sexual offences	64	4	68	94	6	100

03 Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassment & Related offences		5,897	1,385	7,282	81	19	100
of which:
	031 Attempts/Threats to Murder	481	37	518	93	7	100
	032 Assaults	5,267	1,302	6,569	80	20	100
	033 Harassment & Related offences	149	46	195	76	24	100

04 Dangerous or Negligent Acts		6,224	973	7,197	87	14	100
05 Kidnapping & Related offences		59	10	69	86	15	100
06 Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences		507	51	558	91	9	100
07 Burglary & Related offences		1,814	166	1,980	92	8	100
08 Theft & Related offences		11,305	5,932	17,237	66	34	100
09 Fraud, Deception & Related offences		868	243	1,111	78	22	100
10 Controlled Drug offences		15,063	1,757	16,820	90	10	100
11 Weapons & Explosives offences		1,729	137	1,866	93	7	100
12 Damage to Property & the Environment		3,983	526	4,509	88	12	100
13 Public Order & Other Social Code offences		21,708	4,288	25,996	84	17	100
15 Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime		6,200	895	7,095	87	13	100
¹ Data extracted 2nd September 2022.
² 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 CSO.

Table 5.3 Suspected offenders for crimes reported in 2021¹ classified by offence group and sanction type^{2, 3, 4}
	Number		%
ICCS offence group	Crimes Recorded	Suspected offenders	Charge or Summons	Adult Caution	Juvenile Caution	Caution (other)	Fixed Payment Notice	Decision not to Sanction⁵	Sanction Type not recorded⁶

01 Homicide offences	46	35	94	0	0	0	0	6	0
02 Sexual offences	3,416	408	81	0	8	0	0	11	0
03 Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences	20,300	6,768	75	6	9	1	0	9	0
04 Dangerous or Negligent acts	8,277	7,181	94	0	0	0	5	0	0
05 Kidnapping & Related offences	168	48	97	0	1	0	0	1	0
06 Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences	1,728	448	92	0	5	0	0	2	0
07 Burglary & Related offences	8,588	1,671	88	0	9	0	0	3	0
08 Theft & Related offences	46,826	15,473	79	7	12	0	0	2	0
09 Fraud, Deception & Related offences	17,122	1,048	90	0	7	0	0	2	0
10 Controlled Drug offences	20,064	16,438	81	12	7	0	0	0	0
11 Weapons & Explosives offences	2,524	1,798	88	0	11	0	0	0	0
12 Damage to Property & to the Environment	19,271	4,160	73	6	15	0	0	5	0
13 Public order & Other Social Code offences	28,386	24,123	69	8	8	6	9	1	0
15 Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime	11,907	7,077	99	0	0	0	0	0	0
¹ Data extracted 2nd September 2022.
²As recorded in suspected offender's 'detection status' data field.
³ Please note data may not add to 100% due to rounding.
⁴ 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 CSO.
⁵ For reasons such as insufficient evidence, injured party withdraws complaint or suspected offender deceased.
⁶ No sanction type recorded in suspected offender's 'detection status' data field.