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.
One in four (26%) victims who reported historic incidents of Sexual offences in 2022 were males aged under 18 years when the crime incident occurred. However, when the incident was reported, just 3% of victims were males under 18 years compared to 19% for females.
In 2022, just over four in five (83%) victims of reported incidents of Sexual offences were female, and over half (51%) of all victims were under 18 when the incident took place.
Two-thirds (66%) of victims of Sexual offences reported the incident within a year of occurrence in 2022 and one in five (20%) reported the incident more than 10 years after the date of occurrence.
Males were the victims in seven in ten (71%) reported Homicides in 2022 and nearly six in ten (57%) reported incidents of Physical Assault and Related offences.
In 2021, males were the suspected offenders for the majority of detected Homicide, Sexual and Physical Assault offences.
In just over a fifth (22%) of detected Sexual offences in 2021, the suspected offender and victim were both male while three in every four (76%) involved a male suspected offender and female victim.
Recorded Crime statistics continue to be categorised as Statistics Under Reservation.
Data presented in this publication is sourced from PULSE, the administrative crime database of An Garda Síochána, and the data for this publication was extracted at the beginning of March 2023. Sexual offences in this publication include Rape & Sexual Assault only.
Statistics relating to victims of recorded crime incidents were first published by CSO in 2019, for the reference period 2016 to 2018. Todays publication includes statistics for reference year 2022. The full series, from 2016, is available on PxStat.
Statistics relating to suspected offenders of detected crime incidents were published by CSO for the first time in 2020, following the introduction of new data governance controls by An Garda Síochána targeted at improving data quality in the recording of detections in 2018. Statistical data in respect of suspected offenders is presented for crimes reported between 2019 and 2021 in this publication. Figures for reference year 2022 will be published in the next reporting period, in order to allow time for a sufficient volume of investigations to proceed to conclusion.
Differences between the numbers of suspected offenders in this publication and the Recorded Crime Detection 2021 publication of 17 November 2022 reflect the detection of additional incidents in the interim.
Statistics published in this release are in respect of crime incidents known to and recorded by An Garda Síochána, and do not capture crime incidents which have not been reported by victims.
It should be noted that the crime figures for 2020 and 2021 for some crime categories are likely to have been influenced by the public health restrictions that were imposed as a result of COVID-19.
As the data presented here is from administrative sources, it is not comparable to the results of the recently published survey-based data from the CSO Sexual Violence Surveys.
Statistics published by the CSO and sourced from PULSE continue to be categorised as Statistics Under Reservation.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (26 May 2023) released Recorded Crime Victims 2022 and Suspected Offenders 2021, based on recorded crime data collected by An Garda Síochána on their PULSE system.
Commenting on the publication, Jim Dalton, Statistician in the Crime & Criminal Justice Section, said: “Recorded Crime Victim statistics for 2022 and Suspected Offender statistics for 2021 published today show that males tended to report Sexual offence crimes (Rape & Sexual Assault only) later than females. Suspected offender statistics are published up to 2021 only to allow time for criminal investigations to progress. The results also show that a fifth of detected Sexual offences in 2021 involved both a male suspected offender and male victim.
Historic Sexual offences
In 2022, one in four (26%) victims of historic Sexual offences were males who were aged under 18 years when the crime incident occurred. However, at the time of reporting, just 3% of victims were males under 18 years and just over a fifth (22%) of victims were males at least 30 years of age.
By contrast, just over a half (52%) of victims of historic Sexual offences were females aged under 18 years when the incident took place. However, when the crime incident was reported, about one in five (19%) victims were females aged under 18 years at that time and a third (33%) were females at least 30 years of age.
Male victims and suspected offenders of Sexual offences in 2021
In 2021, just over one in five (22%) detected Sexual offences in 2021 involved both a male suspected offender and male victim. Three out of four (76%) detected Sexual offences in 2021 involved a male suspected offender and a female victim.
Nearly six in ten (57%) detected Murder or Manslaughter offences reported in 2021 involved both a male suspected offender and victim while almost four in ten (38%) involved a male suspected offender and female victim.
The suspected offender and victim were both male in just over half (51%) of detected Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments and Related offences. Furthermore, three out of ten (30%) detected crimes involved a male suspected offender and female victim.
Four out of every five reported victims of Sexual offences were female in 2022
Just over four out of every five (83%) victims of reported incidents of Sexual offences in 2022 were female and this continued a similar pattern from 2019 to 2021. Of the 3,118 reported victims of incidents of Sexual offences in 2022, 2,575 were female while 543 were male.
There were 68 victims of reported Homicides in 2022, 15 more than the 53 reported in 2021. Males accounted for 71% of all Homicides in 2022 while 29% were females.
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 2019-2021. Males accounted for 57% of victims for these crime types and 43% were female.
Age of victims of Sexual offences in 2022
In 2022, just over half (51%) of all victims of reported incidents of Sexual offences were aged under 18 when the incident occurred. 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.
Just over a third (34%) of all victims of reported incidents of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences in 2022 were aged 30-44 years when the incident occurred. 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.
Nearly half of all Homicides (49%) in 2022 were aged between 18 and 44 years when the incident took place. Just under a quarter (24%) of victims were aged 60 years or more while 12% were under 18 years of age.
Sexual offences reported in 2022
Two in three (66%) victims of Sexual offences in 2022 reported the incident within a year of occurrence while one in five (20%) reported the incident more than ten years after it occurred.
Males accounted for a higher share of incidents of Sexual offences reported at least a year after occurrence than before. About one in ten (11%) male victims of Sexual offences reported the incident within a year of occurrence compared to almost three in ten (29%) male victims who reported the incident more than a year after the offence occurred.
Suspected offenders and selected crime types in 2021
Serious crimes against the person include Homicide, Sexual offences and Physical Assault. Males accounted for 83% of suspected offenders of detected Homicide offences in 2021 and virtually all (99%) detected Sexual offences. In the case of detected Physical Assault, 80% of suspected offenders were male.
Age of suspected offender of Sexual offences when victim aged under 18
A third (33%) of detected Sexual offences against persons under 18 years at the time of the offence involved a suspected offender who was aged 30 years or more. Suspected offenders aged 18-29 years accounted for a further 13% of detected Sexual offences against this age group and 12% of suspected offenders were aged under 18 years at the time of the incident.”