Society Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2014

Introduction - Crime

Open in Excel:

The statistics in this chapter relate to a number of aspects of justice and defence. They have been obtained from the Garda Síochána, the Prison Service, the Probation Service and the Central Statistics Office. Crime figures are provided for the number of offences recorded by the Garda Síochána. These are based on the Irish Crime Classification System (ICCS).

Probation recidivism provides figures for the re-offending rates of those placed on Probation Orders and Community Service Orders. Prison recidivism provides figures for the re-offending rates of those released from the custody of the Irish Prison Service.

Recorded offences

4.1 Recorded offences classified by group, 2008 to 2013

Offence	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013

01 Homicide offences	89	88	89	66	79	83
02 Sexual offences	1,406	1,480	2,366	2,014	2,117	2,021
03 Attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences	19,150	18,353	17,703	17,062	15,710	14,452
04 Dangerous or negligent acts	19,587	15,532	12,093	9,946	9,051	7,665
05 Kidnapping and related offences	77	146	134	109	101	120
06 Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences	2,299	2,491	3,196	2,931	2,817	2,805
07 Burglary and related offences	24,682	26,910	25,420	27,695	28,133	26,153
08 Theft and related offences	76,861	77,031	76,827	76,975	76,402	78,773
09 Fraud, deception and related offences	5,410	4,947	4,988	5,370	5,791	4,828
10 Controlled drug offences	23,404	21,982	20,005	17,695	16,450	15,394
11 Weapons and explosives offences	4,016	4,064	4,099	3,483	3,038	2,749
12 Damage to property and to the environment	44,626	42,330	39,369	35,574	32,428	28,933
13 Public order and other social code offences	61,820	57,351	54,941	49,060	43,862	36,432
15 Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime	13,278	11,898	11,398	10,173	9,445	9,010
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.1 Recorded offences classified by group, 2008 to 2013 (XLS 9KB)

Interactive table: StatBank link

Show Graph - 4.1 Recorded offences in selected groups

	Dangerous or negligent acts	Burglary and related offences	Controlled drug offences	Public order and other social code offences
2008	19587	24682	23404	61820
2009	15532	26910	21982	57351
2010	12093	25420	20005	54941
2011	9946	27695	17695	49060
2012	9051	28133	16450	43862
2013	7665	26153	15394	36432

Comparing recorded offences between 2013 and 2012, falls continued in most offence groups. There were rises in Hoimcide offences (79 to 83), Kidnapping and related offences (101 to 120) and Theft and related offences (76,402 to 78,773).

There were 83 Homicide offences (ICCS 01) recorded in 2013 (provisional figures subject to revision). Dublin Metropolitan Region Western and Cavan/Monaghan Garda Divisions had the highest number of recorded offences at 9.

Incidents of Assaults and Burglary

4.2 Incidents of Assaults and Burglary, recorded, per 100,000 population, detections and with relevant proceedings, 2012

Offence	Garda region	Recorded	Per 100,000 population	Detected	Detection rate (%)	With relevant proceedings

Assaults	Northern	1,832	353.1	1,383	75.5	755
	Western	1,490	253.5	1,018	68.3	445
	Southern	2,672	307.9	2,009	75.2	812
	Eastern	2,104	272.5	1,373	65.3	617
	South Eastern	1,700	298.1	1,228	72.2	494
	Dublin Metropolitan	3,769	296.0	1,838	48.8	847
	State	13,567	295.6	8,849	65.2	3,970

Burglary	Northern	2,474	476.8	577	23.3	366
	Western	2,375	404.0	570	24.0	356
	Southern	3,094	356.6	1,075	34.7	661
	Eastern	5,676	735.1	959	16.9	540
	South Eastern	3,594	630.3	813	22.6	420
	Dublin Metropolitan	10,920	857.6	2,161	19.8	1,437
	State	28,133	612.9	6,155	21.9	3,780
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.2 Incidents of Assaults and Burglary, recorded, per 100,000 population, detections and with relevant proceedings, 2012 (XLS 33KB)

Interactive table: StatBank link

Comparing per capita figures for 2012, the Northern Region was the highest for recorded Assaults offences, with 353.1 offences per 100,000, while the Western Region had the lowest (253.5 per 100,000).

For 2012, almost 40% of Burglary offences were recorded in the Dublin Metropolitan Region.

Probation recidivism

4.3 Probation offender numbers and whether there was a re-offence within three years, 2007 and 2008 cohort

		2007 cohort				2008 cohort
		Re-offence within three years			Recidivism rate	Re-offence within three years			Recidivism rate	Recidivism rate
		Yes	No	Total	%	Yes	No	Total	%	Absolute change

Total offenders		1,741	1,821	3,562	48.9	1,543	2,218	3,761	41.0	- 7.9

Sex
	Male	1,542	1,536	3,078	50.1	1,373	1,888	3,261	42.1	- 8.0
	Female	199	285	484	41.1	170	330	500	34.0	- 7.1

Male age group
	<18	108	48	156	69.2	142	95	237	59.9	- 9.3
	18-24	765	586	1,351	56.6	677	800	1,477	45.8	-10.8
	25-44	613	798	1,411	43.4	515	854	1,369	37.6	- 5.8
	45-64	55	93	148	37.2	39	122	161	24.2	-12.9
	65 +	1	11	12	8.3	0	17	17	0.0	- 8.3

Female age group
	<18	16	9	25	64.0	19	21	40	47.5	-16.5
	18-24	71	95	166	42.8	57	116	173	32.9	- 9.8
	25-44	104	160	264	39.4	81	168	249	32.5	- 6.9
	45-64	8	20	28	28.6	12	23	35	34.3	+5.7
	65 +	0	1	1	0.0	1	2	3	33.3	+33.3

All persons age group
	<18	124	57	181	68.5	161	116	277	58.1	-10.4
	18-24	836	681	1,517	55.1	734	916	1,650	44.5	-10.6
	25-44	717	958	1,675	42.8	596	1,022	1,618	36.8	- 6.0
	45-64	63	113	176	35.8	51	145	196	26.0	- 9.8
	65 +	1	12	13	7.7	1	19	20	5.0	- 2.7

Probation type
	Community service	577	702	1,279	45.1	463	742	1,205	38.4	- 6.7
	Probation order	1,164	1,119	2,283	51.0	1,080	1,476	2,556	42.3	- 8.7

Probation referral offence
01	Homicide offences	1	2	3	33.3	1	6	7	14.3	-19.0
02	Sexual offences	7	25	32	21.9	5	29	34	14.7	- 7.2
03	Attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences	162	253	415	39.0	169	274	443	38.1	- 0.9
04	Dangerous or negligent acts	65	90	155	41.9	62	134	196	31.6	-10.3
05	Kidnapping and related offences	0	2	2	0.0	0	1	1	0.0	0.0
06	Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences	40	49	89	44.9	31	42	73	42.5	- 2.5
07	Burglary and related offences	120	73	193	62.2	103	107	210	49.0	-13.1
08	Theft and related offences	355	335	690	51.4	320	415	735	43.5	- 7.9
09	Fraud, deception and related offences	15	38	53	28.3	18	30	48	37.5	+9.2
10	Controlled drug offences	231	337	568	40.7	212	355	567	37.4	- 3.3
11	Weapons and explosives offences	52	48	100	52.0	58	61	119	48.7	- 3.3
12	Damage to property and to the environment	95	80	175	54.3	97	110	207	46.9	- 7.4
13	Public order and other social code offences	435	274	709	61.4	329	418	747	44.0	-17.3
14	Road and traffic offences (NEC)	114	149	263	43.3	73	147	220	33.2	-10.2
15	Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime	48	58	106	45.3	57	81	138	41.3	- 4.0
16	Offences not elsewhere classified	1	7	8	12.5	2	0	2	100.0	+87.5
	Not stated	0	1	1	0.0	6	8	14	42.9	+42.9
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.3 Probation offender numbers and whether there was a re-offence within three years, 2007 and 2008 cohort (XLS 40KB)

In 2008, 3,761 individuals (cases) were placed on Probation orders or Community service orders. Of these, 1,543 (41.0%) re-offended within a three-year period, a fall of 7.9% between 2007 and 2008. When considering age and sex, these trends were repeated. Recidivism among males fell by 8.0% to 42.1% in 2008 while female recidivism fell by 7.1% to 34.0% in the same period. Falls in the recidivism rates were also observed across all age groups.

Of the 1,543 individuals who re-offended, 40.3% did so within the first twelve months, while an additional 31.7% did so within 12 to 24 months of referral to the Probation Service.

	Probation re-offenders by time period to first re-offence %
0<6	20.1
6<12	20.2
12<18	16.6
18<24	15.1
24<30	15.3
30<36	12.7

Prison recidivism

4.4 Prisoner offender numbers and whether there was a re-offence within three years, 2007 and 2008 cohort

		2007 cohort				2008 cohort
		Re-offence within three years			Recidivism rate	Re-offence within three years			Recidivism rate	Recidivism rate
		Yes	No	Total	%	Yes	No	Total	%	Absolute change

Total offenders		2,254	1,820	4,074	55.3	2,802	2,687	5,489	51.0	-4.3

Sex
	Male	2,105	1,669	3,774	55.8	2,568	2,415	4,983	51.5	-4.2
	Female	149	151	300	49.7	234	272	506	46.2	-3.4

Male age group
	<21 years	329	212	541	60.8	365	268	633	57.7	-3.2
	21-25	621	392	1,013	61.3	783	641	1,424	55.0	-6.3
	26-30	432	295	727	59.4	554	454	1,008	55.0	-4.5
	31-35	299	248	547	54.7	335	320	655	51.1	-3.5
	36-40	187	165	352	53.1	239	225	464	51.5	-1.6
	41-50	175	223	398	44.0	227	336	563	40.3	-3.7
	51-60	47	96	143	32.9	51	123	174	29.3	-3.6
	61 +	15	38	53	28.3	14	48	62	22.6	-5.7

Female age group
	<21 years	13	13	26	50.0	14	20	34	41.2	-8.8
	21-25	39	27	66	59.1	65	51	116	56.0	-3.1
	26-30	27	39	66	40.9	45	71	116	38.8	-2.1
	31-35	43	28	71	60.6	48	53	101	47.5	-13.0
	36-40	11	19	30	36.7	30	32	62	48.4	11.7
	41-50	11	17	28	39.3	26	35	61	42.6	3.3
	51-60	4	8	12	33.3	5	8	13	38.5	5.1
	61 +	1	0	1	100.0	1	2	3	33.3	-66.7

All persons age group
	<21 years	342	225	567	60.3	379	288	667	56.8	-3.5
	21-25	660	419	1,079	61.2	848	692	1,540	55.1	-6.1
	26-30	459	334	793	57.9	599	525	1,124	53.3	-4.6
	31-35	342	276	618	55.3	383	373	756	50.7	-4.7
	36-40	198	184	382	51.8	269	257	526	51.1	-0.7
	41-50	186	240	426	43.7	253	371	624	40.5	-3.1
	51-60	51	104	155	32.9	56	131	187	29.9	-3.0
	61 +	16	38	54	29.6	15	50	65	23.1	-6.6

Initial Imprisonment offence
01	Homicide offences	5	24	29	17.2	16	18	34	47.1	29.8
02	Sexual offences	17	73	90	18.9	11	63	74	14.9	-4.0
03	Attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences	237	163	400	59.3	251	182	433	58.0	-1.3
04	Dangerous or negligent acts	143	190	333	42.9	203	302	505	40.2	-2.7
05	Kidnapping and related offences	8	8	16	50.0	7	4	11	63.6	13.6
06	Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences	43	23	66	65.2	18	22	40	45.0	-20.2
07	Burglary and related offences	100	30	130	76.9	96	62	158	60.8	-16.2
08	Theft and related Offences	383	190	573	66.8	441	283	724	60.9	-5.9
09	Fraud, deception and related offences	28	47	75	37.3	35	79	114	30.7	-6.6
10	Controlled drug offences	127	163	290	43.8	192	200	392	49.0	5.2
11	Weapons and explosives offences	83	40	123	67.5	75	72	147	51.0	-16.5
12	Damage to property and to the environment	146	83	229	63.8	164	124	288	56.9	-6.8
13	Public order and other social code offences	449	222	671	67	549	290	839	65.4	-1.5
14	Road and traffic offences (NEC)	245	364	609	40	390	715	1105	35.3	-4.9
15	Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime	127	77	204	62	224	103	327	68.5	6.2
16	Offences not elsewhere classified	113	123	236	48	130	168	298	43.6	-4.3
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.4 Prison offender numbers and whether there was a re-offence within three years, 2007 and 2008 cohort (XLS 40KB)

In 2008, 5,489 individuals (cases) were released from the custody of the Irish Prison Service. Of these, 2,802 (51.0%) re-offended within a three-year period, a decrease of 4.3% from the 55.3% recorded in 2007. This fall is also visible, when considering the demographics of offenders. Male re-offending fell from 55.8% to 51.5% between 2007 and 2008 while female re-offending rates fell from 49.7% to 46.2%.

Of the 2,802 individuals who re-offended, the great majority (1,809 or 64.6%) did so within the first six months of official release from custody.

	Prison re-offenders by time period to first re-offence %
0<6	64.6
6<12	14.7
12<18	8.4
18<24	5.2
24<36	7.2

Go to next chapter >>> Environment

Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2014

Crime

Introduction - Crime

Recorded offences

Incidents of Assaults and Burglary

Probation recidivism

Prison recidivism

Contents

Why you can Trust the CSO

Contact:

Links:

Careers

Follow: