Society Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2017

Introduction - Crime

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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, 2011 to 2016


Offence		2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
01	Homicide offences	66	79	83	80	63	71
02	Sexual offences	2,014	2,116	2,009	2,053	2,348	2,549
03	Attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences	17,062	15,710	14,502	15,164	16,976	16,360
04	Dangerous or negligent acts	9,946	9,051	7,660	7,298	7,224	7,768
05	Kidnapping and related offences	109	101	124	124	152	119
06	Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences	2,931	2,817	2,806	2,647	2,577	2,096
07	Burglary and related offences	27,695	28,133	26,218	27,635	26,261	18,438
08	Theft and related offences	76,974	76,402	78,737	77,697	75,864	64,981
09	Fraud, deception and related offences	5,370	5,790	4,824	5,178	5,579	4,902
10	Controlled drug offences	17,695	16,450	15,372	15,915	15,090	16,119
11	Weapons and explosives offences	3,483	3,038	2,750	2,479	2,377	2,123
12	Damage to property and to the environment	35,573	32,428	28,913	27,394	26,049	22,267
13	Public order and other social code offences	49,060	43,861	36,453	32,639	33,276	29,128
15	Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime	10,172	9,445	9,187	9,765	11,438	11,683
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.1 Recorded offences classified by group, 2011 to 2016 (XLS 14KB)

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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
2011	9946	27695	17695	49060
2012	9051	28133	16450	43861
2013	7660	26218	15372	36453
2014	7298	27635	15915	32639
2015	7224	26261	15090	33276
2016	7768	18438	16119	29158

Comparing recorded offences between 2015 and 2016, falls continued in most offence groups. There were rises in Homicide offences (63 to 71), falls in Kidnapping and related offences (152 to 119) and falls in Theft and related offences (75,864 to 64,981) and Burglary and related offences (26,261 to 18,438).

Incidents of Assaults and Burglary

4.2 Incidents of Assaults and Burglary, recorded, per 100,000 population, detections and with relevant proceedings, 2014

Offence	Garda region	Recorded	Per 100,000 population	Detected	Detection rate (%)
Assaults	Northern	2,048	393.1	1,342	65.5
	Western	4,804	305.6	1,087	60.3
	Southern	2,850	327.1	1,940	68.1
	Eastern	2,216	285.8	1,381	62.3
	South Eastern	1,689	294.9	1,161	68.7
	Dublin Metropolitan	4,526	353.9	1,864	41.2
	State	15,133	328.3	8,775	58.0

Burglary	Northern	2,200	422.2	425	19.3
	Western	2,091	354.2	438	20.9
	Southern	2,772	318.1	777	28.0
	Eastern	4,970	641.0	712	14.3
	South Eastern	3,402	594.1	672	19.8
	Dublin Metropolitan	12,218	955.4	1,859	15.2
	State	27,653	599.9	4,883	17.7
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.2 Incidents of Assaults and Burglary, recorded, per 100,000 population, detections and with relevant proceedings, 2014 (XLS 12KB)

Interactive table: StatBank link

Comparing per capita figures for 2014, the Northern Region was the highest for recorded Assaults offences, with 393.1 offences per 100,000 population, while the Eastern Region had the lowest (285.8 per 100,000).

For 2014, 44% 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, 2009 and 2010 cohort

		2009 cohort				2010 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		1,436	2,418	3,854	37.3	1,446	2,414	3,860	37.5	+0.2
Sex
	Male	1,279	2,059	3,338	38.3	1,303	2,082	3,385	38.5	+0.2
	Female	157	359	516	30.4	143	332	475	30.1	-0.3
Male age group
	<18	133	71	204	65.2	91	53	144	63.2	-2.0
	18-24	590	829	1,419	41.6	664	842	1,506	44.1	+2.5
	25-44	512	1,015	1,527	33.5	507	1,031	1,538	33.0	-0.6
	45-64	44	130	174	25.3	41	149	190	21.6	-3.7
	65 +	0	14	14	0.0	0	7	7	0.0	0.0
Female age group
	<18	11	16	27	40.7	10	8	18	55.6	+14.8
	18-24	62	122	184	33.7	59	123	182	32.4	-1.3
	25-44	74	189	263	28.1	61	179	240	25.4	-2.7
	45-64	10	31	41	24.4	13	21	34	38.2	+13.8
	65 +	0	1	1	0.0	0	1	1	0.0	0.0
All persons age group
	<18	144	87	231	62.3	101	61	162	62.3	+0.0
	18-24	652	951	1,603	40.7	723	965	1,688	42.8	+2.2
	25-44	586	1,204	1,790	32.7	568	1,210	1,778	31.9	-0.8
	45-64	54	161	215	25.1	54	170	224	24.1	-1.0
	65 +	0	15	15	0.0	0	8	8	0.0	0.0

Probation type
	Community service	486	1,008	1,494	32.5	639	1,246	1,885	33.9	+1.4
	Probation order	950	1,410	2,360	40.3	807	1,168	1,975	40.9	+0.6

Probation referral offence
01	Homicide offences	0	2	2	0.0	0	3	3	0.0	0.0
02	Sexual offences	4	22	26	15.4	2	29	31	6.5	-8.9
03	Attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences	143	291	434	32.9	169	299	468	36.1	+3.2
04	Dangerous or negligent acts	59	166	225	26.2	78	168	246	31.7	+5.5
05	Kidnapping and related offences	1	0	1	100.0	0	1	1	0.0	-100.0
06	Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences	24	50	74	32.4	30	44	74	40.5	+8.1
07	Burglary and related offences	118	121	239	49.4	119	142	261	45.6	-3.8
08	Theft and related offences	304	423	727	41.8	257	351	608	42.3	+0.5
09	Fraud, deception and related offences	13	53	66	19.7	10	60	70	14.3	-5.4
10	Controlled drug offences	210	381	591	35.5	215	383	598	36.0	+0.4
11	Weapons and explosives offences	52	71	123	42.3	25	60	85	29.4	-12.9
12	Damage to property and to the environment	85	140	225	37.8	128	161	289	44.3	+6.5
13	Public order and other social code offences	294	413	707	41.6	258	421	679	38.0	-3.6
14	Road and traffic offences (NEC)	86	206	292	29.5	109	199	308	35.4	+5.9
15	Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime	42	66	108	38.9	44	80	124	35.5	-3.4
16	Offences not elsewhere classified	0	3	3	0.0	0	3	3	0.0	0.0
	Not stated	1	10	11	9.1	2	10	12	16.7	+7.6
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.3 Probation offender numbers and whether there was a re-offence within three years, 2009 and 2010 cohort (XLS 19KB)

In 2010, 3,860 individuals (cases) were placed on Probation orders or Community service orders. Of these, 1,446 (37.5%) re-offended within a three-year period, an increase of 0.2% between 2009 and 2010. When considering age and sex, these trends were repeated. Recidivism among males rose by 0.2% to 38.5% in 2010 while female recidivism fell by 0.3% to 30.1% in the same period. Falls in the recidivism rates were also observed in the majority of all persons age groups.

Of the 1,446 individuals who re-offended, 47% did so within the first twelve months, while an additional 29.2% 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	26.3
6<12	20.7
12<18	16.5
18<24	12.7
24<30	13.0
30<36	10.7

Prison recidivism

4.4 Prisoner offender numbers and whether there was a re-offence within three years, 2009 and 2010 cohort

		2009 cohort				2010 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		3,563	3,944	7,507	47.5	4,208	5,131	9,339	45.1	- 2.4
Sex
	Male	3,254	3,503	6,757	48.2	3,794	4,451	8,245	46.0	- 2.1
	Female	309	441	750	41.2	414	680	1,094	37.8	- 3.4
Male age group
	<21 years	465	376	841	55.3	502	472	974	51.5	- 3.8
	21-25	1,027	867	1,894	54.2	1,166	1,063	2,229	52.3	- 1.9
	26-30	689	712	1,401	49.2	783	919	1,702	46.0	- 3.2
	31-35	444	517	961	46.2	538	641	1,179	45.6	- 0.6
	36-40	270	343	613	44.0	344	468	812	42.4	- 1.7
	41-50	286	445	731	39.1	350	593	943	37.1	- 2.0
	51+	73	243	316	23.1	111	295	406	27.3	+4.2
Female age group
	<21 years	31	40	71	43.7	28	63	91	30.8	- 12.9
	21-25	99	100	199	49.7	104	171	275	37.8	- 11.9
	26-30	63	100	163	38.7	91	162	253	36.0	- 2.7
	31-35	54	71	125	43.2	79	111	190	41.6	- 1.6
	36-40	27	48	75	36.0	54	71	125	43.2	+7.2
	41-50	24	70	94	25.5	41	89	130	31.5	+6.0
	51+	11	12	23	47.8	17	13	30	56.7	+8.8
All persons age group
	<21 years	496	416	912	54.4	530	535	1,065	49.8	- 4.6
	21-25	1,126	967	2,093	53.8	1,270	1,234	2,504	50.7	- 3.1
	26-30	752	812	1,564	48.1	874	1,081	1,955	44.7	- 3.4
	31-35	498	588	1,086	45.9	617	752	1,369	45.1	- 0.8
	36-40	297	391	688	43.2	398	539	937	42.5	- 0.7
	41-50	310	515	825	37.6	391	682	1,073	36.4	- 1.1
	51+	84	255	339	24.8	128	308	436	29.4	+4.6

Initial Imprisonment offence
01	Homicide offences	12	25	37	32.4	9	22	31	29.0	- 3.4
02	Sexual offences	19	71	90	21.1	12	74	86	14.0	- 7.2
03	Attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences	256	199	455	56.3	308	233	541	56.9	+0.7
04	Dangerous or negligent acts	292	516	808	36.1	315	590	905	34.8	- 1.3
05	Kidnapping and related offences	7	5	12	58.3	3	4	7	42.9	- 15.5
06	Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences	25	13	38	65.8	29	14	43	67.4	+1.7
07	Burglary and related offences	128	55	183	69.9	157	72	229	68.6	- 1.4
08	Theft and related Offences	481	252	733	65.6	570	333	903	63.1	- 2.5
09	Fraud, deception and related offences	41	110	151	27.2	59	132	191	30.9	+3.7
10	Controlled drug offences	228	260	488	46.7	319	366	685	46.6	- 0.2
11	Weapons and explosives offences	99	56	155	63.9	112	85	197	56.9	- 7.0
12	Damage to property and to the environment	198	128	326	60.7	234	164	398	58.8	- 1.9
13	Public order and other social code offences	716	467	1,183	60.5	789	573	1,362	57.9	- 2.6
14	Road and traffic offences (NEC)	543	1,288	1,831	29.7	754	1,962	2,716	27.8	- 1.9
15	Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime	373	243	616	60.6	487	338	795	57.5	- 3.1
16	Offences not elsewhere classified	145	256	401	36.2	81	169	250	32.4	- 3.8
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.4 Prisoner offender numbers and whether there was a re-offence within three years, 2009 and 2010 cohort (XLS 19KB)

In 2010, 9,339 individuals (cases) were released from the custody of the Irish Prison Service. Of these, 4,208 (45.1%) re-offended within a three-year period, a decrease from the 47.5% recorded in 2009. This fall is also visible, when considering the demographics of offenders. Male re-offending fell from 48.2% to 46.0% between 2009 and 2010 while female re-offending rates fell from 41.2% to 37.8%.

Of the 4,208 individuals who re-offended, the great majority (2,561 or 60.9%) did so within the first six months of official release from custody.

	Prison re-offenders by months to first re-offence %
0<6	60.9
6<12	16.7
12<18	9.3
18<24	6.1
24<36	7.0

Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2017

Crime

Introduction - Crime

Recorded offences

Incidents of Assaults and Burglary

Probation recidivism

Prison recidivism

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