Recorded Crime Victims 2022 and Suspected Offenders 2021

Just over four out of every five (83%) victims of reported incidents of Sexual offences in 2022 were female and this continues a similar pattern from the earlier years presented Table 2.1 below. Of the 3,118 reported victims of Sexual offences in 2022, 2,575 were female while 543 were male. See Figure 2.1 and Table 2.1.

There were 68 victims of reported Homicide offences in 2022, 15 more than the 53 reported in 2021. Of the 68 Homicide victims, 47 were by Murder or Manslaughter with the remaining 21 attributed to Dangerous Driving Leading to Death. Males accounted for 71% of victims of all Homicide offences in 2022 while 29% were females. This compares with 74% for males and 26% for females in 2021. See Figure 2.1 and Table 2.1.

Males accounted for 75% of victims of Murder or Manslaughter compared with 25% for females in 2022. In the same year, just over six out of ten (62%) of victims of Dangerous Driving Leading to Death were male compared with just under four out of ten (38%) for females. See Figure 2.1 and Table 2.1.

There were 23,255 victims of reported incidents of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences in 2022 and this was higher than in each of the years 2018-2021. Nearly six out of every ten (57%) victims of this crime in 2022 were male and this was slightly more than in 2020 (55%) and 2021 (56%) but less than the 59% recorded in 2019. See Figure 2.1 and Table 2.1.

Half of victims of Sexual offences in 2022 were under 18 years when the crime incident occurred

In 2022, just over half (51%) of victims of reported incidents of Sexual offences were aged under 18 at the time of occurrence. Three out of ten (30%) victims were aged between 18 and 29 years when the incident occurred while the remainder (around 20%) were 30 years or over. See Figure 2.2 and Table 2.2.

Just over a third of victims of Assault and Related offences in 2022 were aged 30-44 years when the crime incident occurred

Just over a third (34%) of the 23,255 victims of reported incidents of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences in 2022 were aged 30-44 years when the incident occurred and nearly three in ten (29%) were aged between 18 and 29 years. Just under a fifth (18%) were aged 45-59 years and 14% were under 18 when the incident occurred. The breakdown by age for 2022 was very similar to that for the years 2019 to 2021. See Figure 2.3 and Table 2.2.

Victims of reported Assaults which accounted for 85% of the overall category of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences in 2022 showed a very similar age profile: a third (33%) of victims were aged 30-44 when the incident occurred and nearly three in ten (29%) were aged 18-29 years. Just under a fifth (18%) were aged 45-59 years and 14% were under 18 years of age. See Table 2.2.

The age profile of victims of reported incidents of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassment & Related offences were quite similar between 2019 and 2022. For example, 29% of victims in 2022 were aged between 18 and 29 years when the incident occurred compared with 31% in 2019. Also, 34% of victims in 2022 were in the 30-44 age group in 2022 compared with 32% in 2019 and 18% of victims were aged 45-59 years in both years. See Table 2.2.

Half of victims of Homicides offences in 2022 were aged 18-44 years when the crime incident occurred

Nearly half of all victims of reported Homicides (49%) in 2022 were aged between 18 and 44 years when the crime incident took place. Just under a quarter (24%) of victims were aged 60 years or more while 12% were under 18. Murder or Manslaughter victims accounted for 47 of the 68 victims of Homicide offences in 2022. The age profile of Murder or Manslaughter victims was slightly different to that of Homicide offences as a whole: over half (53%) were aged 18-44 years, about a fifth (19%) were aged 60 years or more while 11% were under 18 years. See Figure 2.4 and Table 2.2.

Nearly four out of every ten (38%) victims of Dangerous Driving Leading to Death were aged between 18 and 44 years in 2022. A third of victims (33%) were aged 60 years or more while the remainder were under 18 years or between 45 and 59 years in equal measure (14%). See Table 2.2.

Two thirds of victims of Sexual offences in 2022 reported the crime within a year of occurrence

There is often a separation in time between when a crime occurred and when it was subsequently reported to or became known to An Garda Síochána. This is observed to be a particular feature of Sexual offences which are often not reported by victims for a substantial period of time after the offence has taken place. A breakdown of the period of time between the date of occurrence of Sexual offence crime incidents and the date reported to An Garda Síochána is provided in Table 2.3.

Two thirds (66% or 2,053) of the 3,118 victims of Sexual offence incidents in 2022 reported the crime within a year of occurrence. This was higher than in 2021 (57%) and in the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (2019 – 61%). See Figure 2.5 and Table 2.3.

One in five victims (20%) of Sexual offences who reported the crimes in 2022 referred to incidents which occurred more than ten years earlier. This was lower than the 26% reported in 2021 and 24% in 2019.  The share of victims who reported such crime incidents in the intervening periods has remained much the same since 2019. See Figure 2.5 and Table 2.3.

Males accounted for a higher share of victims of historic rather than recent Sexual offences

Recorded crime data in respect of Sexual offence crimes and victims, relates both to events which were reported to An Garda Síochána shortly after their occurrence, as well as to events which may have happened many years ago but are now being reported by victims. The profile of victims differs depending on this incident-reporting gap, and consequently they are examined separately in the analysis which follows.

For ease of understanding, the scenarios are referred to as ‘recent’ (i.e., crime reported within one year of occurrence) and ‘historic’ (i.e., crime reported more than one year after its occurrence) in the subsequent analysis.

Table 2.4 below shows the age profile of victims of reported incidents of Sexual offences at the time of occurrence. There were 1,065 recorded victims of historic Sexual offences in 2022. Of this, 309 (29%) were male and 756 (71%) were female. By comparison, males accounted for 234 or 11% of the 2,053 recorded victims of recent Sexual offences in 2022 compared with 1,819 or 89% for females. This followed a broadly similar pattern to the previous three years. See Figure 2.6 and Table 2.4.

There were differences too between the age of male and female victims at the time of the crime incident who reported recent and historic incidents of Sexual offences. Female victims who were under 30 at the time of the incident accounted for two thirds (66%) of all victims of recent Sexual offences compared with 9% for males. The corresponding shares for victims aged 30 years or more was 23% for females and 2% for males. See Figure 2.7 and Table 2.4.

Just over half (52%) of victims of reported incidents of historic Sexual offences were females aged under 18 at the time of the incident compared with just over a quarter (26%) for males. A further 19% of victims were females aged 18 years or more compared with 3% for males. See Figure 2.7 and Table 2.4.

Male victims comprise a higher share of those reporting historic than recent Sexual offences

The age profile of victims in Table 2.5 below is based on the age of the victim when the crime incident was reported and differs from Table 2.4 where the age of the victim was when the incident occurred.

Table 2.4 above shows that 26% of victims of reported historic incidents of Sexual offences were males aged less than 18 years when the incident occurred and 1% were males over 30 years of age. However, males comprised a higher share of those reporting historic than recent incidents of Sexual offences. Table 2.5 shows that just 3% of victims of historic Sexual offence incidents were males aged under 18 years when the incident was reported but just over a fifth (22%) of victims were males at least 30 years of age. See Figure 2.8 and Table 2.5.

By contrast, just over a half (52%) of victims of reported historic incidents of Sexual offences were females aged under 18 years when the incident took place (see Table 2.4 above). However, when the crime incident was reported, just under a fifth (19%) of victims were females aged under 18 years at that time and a third (33%) were females at least 30 years of age. See Figure 2.8 and Table 2.5.