A core principle for assessing the quality of official statistics is relevance - that “statistics meet the needs of users” .
User needs for Recorded Crime statistics are identified through the various interactions between the CSO and key users of Recorded Crime statistics, and are communicated to the CSO via questionnaires, Working Groups, user consultation, ad hoc statistical data requests, etc. Statistical outputs are designed to try to meet user needs as far as possible given the constraints of data availability and the demands of statistical quality.
There are various characteristics of crime which users of Recorded Crime statistics are interested in, and these broadly fall into four themes which form a conceptual framework for statistical reporting, summarised as follows:
This chapter examines user needs for Recorded Crime statistics in terms of the availability of PULSE data for compiling statistics according to the framework above.
Whether the statistics meet the needs of users depends not only, however, on the availability of data, but also on quality of the data and the trust and confidence users have that the statistics are accurate and reliable. As such, a key user need is assessment of the quality of the source. The chapters on Data Quality and Quality Assurance later in this publication specifically look at this assessment.
The main users of Recorded Crime statistics compiled by the CSO include:
Recorded Crime statistics compiled by the CSO are intended to inform users about the set of criminal offences which are reported to, or become known to, AGS.
Users are most frequently interested in counts of criminal offences reported disaggregated by the type of offence, by when the offence was reported (i.e. reference period), and by where the offence took place. Users are increasingly looking for more contextual detail about criminal offences, such as whether an offence featured a discriminatory motive, occurred within a domestic setting or relationship, involved the use of weapons such as firearms or knives, was related to organised crime, or was cyber-related (facilitated by use of computer data or computer systems). This is especially true of more serious criminal offence types, such as homicide.
According to the PULSE crime recording guide, “a criminal offence is recorded when there is a reasonable probability that a criminal offence took place and there is no credible evidence to the contrary. A criminal offence is recorded by recording an appropriate PULSE crime incident”. As such it is the PULSE crime incident, as recorded by AGS, which is used as the counting unit for criminal offences in Recorded Crime statistics.
The classification of the crime incident by criminal offence type, and the recording of the date reported and the Garda sub-district (i.e. station) where the offence took place are mandatory for all PULSE crime incidents. These data are used by the CSO to compile statistics on crime incidents disaggregated by criminal offence type, reference period and administrative region (i.e. Garda regions and divisions). These statistics are reported in the CSO’s quarterly Recorded Crime series.
The type of offence is classified on PULSE according to a set of approximately 200 different crime incident types. For statistical reporting, the CSO groups similar PULSE incident types using the Irish Crime Classification System (ICCS). International bodies such as Eurostat and UNODC have begun to adopt the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (also known as ICCS, but abbreviated ICCSP in this document for clear distinction) for most statistical reporting. Aligning national crime recording systems to an international standard is a ‘work-in-progress’ given the challenges associated with different laws, administrative structures and crime data systems across different countries. A correspondence table is being developed to map PULSE crime incident types to ICCSP criminal offence categories.
The date most frequently used for reporting crime statistics is the date the crime was reported to, or became known to, AGS, in line with international best practice. The date a crime occurred, also recorded on PULSE, is sometimes much earlier than the date reported (e.g. historic sexual offences), and is used by the CSO in certain statistics, for example to analyse the gap in time between the occurrence of an offence and its subsequent reporting to AGS.
Crime incidents on PULSE are recorded with location information such as the street address, the local AGS sub-district (i.e. garda station), and geographical co-ordinate data. AGS has also recently begun to implement the recording of Eircodes in respect of address data. The CSO uses the Garda sub-district recorded in respect of each crime incident to compile statistics according to Garda administrative areas (i.e. regions, divisions).
Contextual data relating to characteristics of criminal offences such as the presence of discriminatory motives, domestic abuse, or the use of weapons is captured by AGS recording such characteristics in the ‘modus operandi’ (MO) data field in PULSE. Previous quality assessments carried out by the CSO in respect of discriminatory motive and domestic abuse data captured in the MO data field indicated that these characteristics tended to be recorded in the MO field in some but not all instances, and therefore that compiling statistics based on the MO data field alone would understate the occurrence of such characteristics. Consequently, the CSO does not currently use the MO data field for statistical outputs. Although these recording issues are being addressed as part of the overall data quality improvement strategy within AGS, the CSO understands from its engagement with AGS that AGS acknowledge that that statistics compiled using the MO data field alone would not be accurate in respect of discriminatory motives, domestic abuse and the use of weapons. The CSO will continue to monitor progress with a view to publishing statistics when appropriate.
A number of PULSE crime incident types have been introduced to specifically capture cyber-related crimes such as accessing information systems without authority or interference with data or information systems. However, there is no data field on PULSE designed to capture the cyber-related nature of other crimes, for example where fraud, harassment or threats are facilitated by use of the internet or social media. As such, there is no data available to compile statistics on cyber-related crime other than on the specific PULSE incident types introduced.
Where persons have been the victims of reported crimes, statistical users are often interested in obtaining aggregate profiles relating to victims. Requests for statistics often relate to the age and sex of victims, the relationship of victims to perpetrators, the nationality or ethnicity of victims, as well as contextual information such as whether the crimes affecting those victims featured a discriminatory motive, occurred within a domestic setting or relationship, involved the use of weapons such as firearms or knives, or were cyber-related.
Where a person is the victim of a criminal offence, details of the person are recorded on PULSE and the person is classified as the ‘injured party’. Not all criminal offences have a victim who is a person, but crimes such as homicide, physical and sexual violence, robbery from the person and theft from the person would have an identified victim in almost all cases. Data on the sex and date of birth of the person are routinely recorded on PULSE and the CSO uses these data to compile annual statistics in respect of victims of serious crimes such as homicide, sexual violence and assaults classified by sex and age group. In respect of offences of sexual violence, where it is the case that many reported offences are historic, additional statistics are compiled which consider the time period between the occurrence of an offence and its subsequent reporting to AGS.
AGS have recently updated the process of data capture in respect of the relationship type between victim and perpetrator (e.g. current or former intimate partners, from the same family, or known to each other at all) on PULSE. The CSO will monitor progress and consider suitable statistical outputs as appropriate.
Data on nationality or ethnicity of victims is not widely collected on PULSE and is not used by the CSO for statistical purposes. For reasons outlined in the previous section, the CSO does not at present compile statistics on victims relating to discriminatory motives, domestic abuse or use of weapons.
A crime is considered to have been detected when a person has been identified as the perpetrator by AGS and that person has been issued with a sanction such as a charge, summons or caution. The person sanctioned is termed the suspected offender. Although it is the case that some investigations conclude with no suspect formally sanctioned, the detection is the most widely used measure of a policing outcome to criminal offences.
Users are interested in rates of detection and types of detection (i.e. prosecution or caution etc.) and how these vary according to the type of criminal offence, the reference period and by region. For prosecuted offences, users are interested in the outcomes of criminal proceedings, such as those which result in conviction, as well as the types of orders or sentences imposed.
New data governance controls for recording detections and for updating the detection status of crime incidents and suspected persons were implemented on PULSE in 2018. The recording of an instance of a sanction (e.g. charge, summons, caution, etc.) on PULSE now automatically updates the detection status of a PULSE crime incident and the detection status of a suspected person including classifying them as the suspected offender. These new governance controls support more reliable data outputs.
The CSO publishes statistics on the proportion of PULSE crime incidents (as published in the Recorded Crime series) which have been detected and which have resulted in charge or summons disaggregated by the year the offence was reported, the criminal offence type (i.e. PULSE incident type) and Garda administrative area. The CSO also compiles statistics relating to persons detected and the type of sanction administered by offence type and reference period. The changes in PULSE in respect of recording detections in 2018 means that data recorded prior to 2018 are not directly comparable and, consequently, the CSO publishes statistics relating to detections and suspected offenders as a new series beginning at reference year 2018. There is demand among some users for statistics relating to detection outcomes according to the reference period of the detection (as opposed to the reference period when the crime was reported) and this is currently being examined by the CSO.
There is some demand among users for statistics on prosecutions and court outcomes relating to specific Acts or Articles of legislation, but this has not been possible to date due to challenges matching PULSE offence codes to articles of legislation.
The outcomes of criminal proceedings in Irish Courts are registered on PULSE in two different ways. Data on court outcomes from the District Court are transferred to PULSE automatically, but outcomes from the higher courts are required to be manually input on PULSE by Garda members. The CSO does not compile statistics on convictions arising from Recorded Crime incidents at present due to concerns regarding the accuracy, timeliness and consistency of court outcome data from the higher courts, as noted in the Garda Homicide Investigation Review Team (HIRT) 'areas for improvement'. The CSO understands that an automatic transfer of court outcomes from the higher courts to PULSE, similar to the existing District Court data transfer, is being developed.
A person who is identified as being responsible for having committed a criminal offence, and is sanctioned accordingly by AGS, is termed a suspected offender. Similar to victims of crime, the sex and date of birth of suspected offenders is routinely recorded on PULSE and this facilitates the compilation of statistics on suspected offenders by sex and age group, by crime offence type and reference period, and by sanction type. Requests for statistical data often relate to the types of sanction which have been imposed and, for prosecuted offences, what the outcomes of court proceedings were (e.g. conviction, sentencing).
For reasons already outlined, the CSO publishes statistical data in respect of suspected offenders as a new series starting at reference year 2018. Again, for reasons already outlined, the CSO does not compile statistics on the relationship of the suspected offender to the victim, on nationality or ethnicity of suspected offenders, on motives or use of weapons, or on court outcomes.
The CSO's outputs are designed to try to meet user needs as far as possible given the constraints of data availability and the demands of statistical quality. The CSO continues to develop the statistical product it compiles from PULSE data in line with user needs and in response to verified improvements in data quality, for example where more reliable PULSE outputs in respect of detections and suspected offenders has enabled the CSO to publish two new statistical series since 2019.
In summary the following user needs are considered, for the most part, and notwithstanding the quality caveat of Statistics Under Reservation, to be met:
The following user needs are not currently met because the data is not currently available or is not of sufficient quality for statistical needs:
See Appendix 1 for a summary table detailing the above.
In terms of development, the CSO understands that AGS have prioritised changes on PULSE to enhance data collection in the areas of hate crime, relationship between victim and perpetrator and sexual offence outcomes in 2021. The CSO will continue to assess PULSE outputs with a view to expanding its statistical product when appropriate.
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