Re-offending by Detected Incidents 2024

Introduction

This release provides figures for the re-offending rates of crime incidents during the period 2019 to 2024. For the purpose of this release a re-offending incident is a detected PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively) crime incident that is linked by a detected person to a previous PULSE recorded incident.

The term “crime incidents” in this report refers to those known to An Garda Síochána (AGS) and recorded as such in the Garda PULSE system.

Data Collection

These figures were produced using An Garda Síochána records.

Re-offending

For this report there is one main condition which must be met in order for a PULSE incident to be classified as a re-offending incident:

• The incident must be detected to an individual or individuals who had previously been detected to a different crime incident that was reported more than 24 hours earlier.

For example, if an incident was reported on 01 February 2024, the incident would be considered a re-offending incident if the person who was detected as the suspected offender had also been detected to any other crime incident that took place before 31 January 2024.

Definition of Detected Crime Incident

A crime incident may be marked as detected when:

• An Garda Síochána (AGS) have identified at least one person responsible for committing an offence carried out during an incident.
• That person has been issued a charge or summons, a formal or informal caution, or a fixed payment notice. There are some limited circumstances where a detection is permitted even though no person has been sanctioned in this way. The rules which govern when an incident may be marked as detected by AGS are set out in the Guide to How Crime is Recorded and Counted by AGS on the Garda website.

A charge is a document detailing the criminal offence(s) a suspected offender is accused of carrying out during a crime incident and following arrest. Once charged, a suspected offender must either be released on bail or detained until they appear in court. A summons is an alternative to a charge whereby a suspected offender is ordered to appear in court at a later date following detection to a crime incident. Cautions (e.g. adult caution, juvenile caution) are alternatives to prosecution which may be issued in limited circumstances when a suspect accepts responsibility for an offence.

Exclusions

When considering re-offending, certain incident types are not included in this study. These incidents involve offences that have been fully administered by the Fixed Charge Processing System (FCPS) and are mostly linked to the incident categories of:

• Dangerous, Careless Driving including Speeding and General Road Incidents
• Vehicle Maintenance and Duty of Care
• Public Order

If these crime incidents are solely managed by the FCPS which takes place when a person complies fully with the sanction (usually a fine or penalty points) they have not been included as a re-offending indicator. If, however, the Fixed Charge is not complied with - which results in subsequent court summons - then the incident is included for the relevant reference year and also as an indicator of re-offending.

Removal of the ‘Statistics Under Reservation’ designation from Probation Re-offending Statistics

The CSO published its fifth CSO Review of the Quality of Recorded Crime Statistics in October 2023. As part of this review the CSO has lifted the ‘Under Reservation’ designation from all Recorded Crime data disseminated after Quarter 1 (Q1) 2023.

The CSO has made this decision because the terms of its various key recommendations from the Quality Improvement Proposal.

from 2018 and Quality Reviews have been met, principally:

• The development and implementation of a formal data quality management system for PULSE that ensures fit-for-purpose crime data (developments throughout 2022 & 2023 culminating in quality checking and publishing of those results, with a focus on risk management).
• An independent review conducted on behalf of An Garda Síochána (AGS) which found evidence of good controls for the acknowledged risks to data collection and quality.
• There is now a senior manager (appointed in 2019) within AGS who has overall responsibility for data quality.
• The provision of a comprehensive and publicly available document explaining how crime is recorded (2020).

In addition, a new Memorandum of Understanding has been agreed between the CSO and AGS which explicitly outlines expectations concerning AGS quality checking and reporting of same. The standard quality checks of PULSE data carried out as part of this fifth CSO Quality Review show evidence of consistent high data quality levels.

AGS has worked over the past number of years to advance the assurance levels which can be provided around Garda PULSE data, and in particular the quality management developments of 2022 and 2023. This work has seen the development of quality assurance processes by AGS over the period which has culminated in the implementation of a more formal data quality management system by AGS.

The recorded crime series has been progressively improving over time with the cumulative impact of the improved data quality, assessment, and assurance measures being seen in a higher data quality level as noted in various CSO reviews in recent years.

Given the new AGS controls for quality checking and reporting, coupled with the CSO reserving the right to do its own reviews, a level of assurance has been provided warranting the lifting of the "Under Reservation” categorisation. 

However, some judgement should be exercised by users when using data produced in the earlier years of the recorded crime time series given the legacy quality issues which have been commented on in various reviews. For instance, detections data pre and post 2018 are not comparable given the improved governance controls introduced in that year. The CSO will continue to inform users of the quality of the data they are using, and of any particular issues which may need to be noted around time series comparability as they arise.

Crime Recording

Incidents reported, or which become known to members of An Garda Síochána, are recorded when, on the balance of probability, a Garda determines that a criminal offence defined by law has taken place during the incident, and there is no credible evidence to the contrary. If it is subsequently determined that a criminal incident did not take place, the record is invalidated and is not counted in the statistics. If a person makes a report and subsequently withdraws it, then this too is invalidated unless there is evidence to suggest that, by reasonable probability, the offence has taken place. 

For criminal incidents where victim confirmation is required (e.g. assault, fraud), a criminal incident is recorded only where the victim confirms the incident or where there is evidence to suggest that by reasonable probability it occurred.

Crime Incident Classification

A criminal incident is classified as a particular incident type at the initial recording of that incident by using the incident narrative and incident categorisation recorded on PULSE.

Crime Incident Groups

1. Harm to Persons	Murder, Attempted Murder or Manslaughter (11) Assaults or Harassments (12) Sexual Violence (13) Coercion, Intimidation or Exploitation (14) Accidental Harm or Neglect (15)
2. Property	Theft, Fraud, Robbery and Deception (21) Trespassing, Burglary, Illegal Access, Damage and Loss (22)
3. Drugs, Alcohol or Licence activities	Drugs (31) Alcohol (32) Firearms, Explosives or Chemicals (33) Gambling (34)
4. Public, Social or Justice Procedures	Justice Procedures (41) Public Order (42) Family (43) Organised Crime (44) Trading Regulations (45)
5. Environment	Pollution or Damage to the Environment (51) Animal Welfare (52)
6. Vehicles, Roads and Transportation	In Charge of Vehicles While Influenced by Drugs, Alcohol (61) Dangerous, Careless Driving Including Speeding and General Road Incidents (62) Vehicle Maintenance and Duty of Care (63) Rail, Maritime or Air Related (64)
7. Incidents Not Classified Elsewhere	General Incidents (71) Nonspecific Incidents (72)

Personal Characteristics

CSO publish crime related statistics classified by the personal characteristics of people linked to justice procedures. In the re-offending incident release these characteristics are based on data captured at the time of the crime detection.

These include:

• Age categories (Years)
• Gender/Sex categories (Male or Female)
• Incident location (AGS Division)