Crime and Victimisation 2019

The Crime and Victimisation Survey is a household survey about crime in Ireland carried out by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Crime and Victimisation 2019 was part of the Health and Crime Survey, conducted via the CSO's General Household Survey (GHS) during Q2 and Q3 2019. Interviews took place during a six month interviewing period between April and October 2019. Previous Crime and Victimisation surveys have been carried out by the CSO in 1998, 2003, 2006, 2010 and 2015.

Respondents aged 18 years and over were asked to consider the period of 12 months prior to interview and to rate their response to a series of questions relating to the impact that crime has on their lives and their opinions on how effectively crime is dealt with in Ireland.

Respondents were then asked about their own personal experiences and the experiences of their household in terms of whether they had been the victim of different types of crime such as theft, assault or burglary in the 12 months prior to interview. Respondents who had experienced crime were asked additional questions, such as whether they had reported the crime to An Garda Síochána, reasons for not reporting if they didn't report, whether they felt the crime had been motivated by discrimination, and other contextual details relating to the crime.

Finally, farming households were asked a short set of additional questions relating to specific types of crime which target farms such as trespassing on farm lands and thefts of farming machinery and livestock in the 12 months prior to interview.

The survey did not ask directly about sexual crimes as these are to be the focus of a comprehensive, dedicated national survey on sexual violence which is currently being developed by the CSO. However, it could be the case that victims of sexual assault may have reported on this as a physical assault in response to this survey.

• In 2019, the proportion of persons aged 18 and over who said they worried “all the time” or “often” about being a victim of crime varied between 15% - for crimes which might result in physical harm or injury - and 23% - for crimes which might result in damage to or loss of property. Around half of people – varying between 42% and 51% for different types of crime - said they “don’t worry at all” about crime. See Tables 2.1, 2.2 and Figure 2.1.
• Three quarters (75%) of persons aged 18 and over said they felt “very safe” or “fairly safe” walking in their local area at night. The proportion of those who felt “a little unsafe” or “very unsafe” walking in their local area at night was higher for women (36%) than for men (13%), and higher in the most disadvantaged areas of the country (31%) than in the most affluent areas (21%). See Table 2.5 and Figure 2.2.
• Over two-thirds (68%) of persons aged 18 and over said they felt that An Garda Síochána were “very effective” or “quite effective” at tackling crime in their local area. One in ten (10%) said the Gardaí were “not effective at all”. See Table 2.8 and Figure 2.3.
• One in ten (10%) persons aged 18 years and over said that they had been a victim of a violent or non-violent theft or attempted theft, an assault or a fraud crime in the 12 months prior to interview. Younger people were more likely to be a victim of these types of crime. 14% of persons aged 18-29 said they had been a victim compared to 5% of people over 60. Dublin had the highest rate of victimisation for these types of crime (13%). See Table 3.2 and Figure 3.1.
• Of persons aged 18 and over who were a victim of a violent or non-violent theft or attempted theft, an assault or a fraud crime, around 4 in 10 (39%) said they reported incidents to An Garda Síochána. See Table 3.3.
• Fewer than one in twelve (7%) persons aged 18 or over who were victims of personal crime felt that the crime took place because of a personal characteristic of theirs, such as their age, gender or race. 4% of victims said they felt that the crime had been motivated by their race, religion or ethnicity. See Table 3.5.
• One in 25 households (4%) said they had suffered either a burglary or vandalism to their property in the 12 months prior to interview, with the highest rates in Dublin (6%) and lowest rates in the Border and West regions (both 2%). Around 6 out of 10 households (59%) reported these incidents to An Garda Síochána. See Tables 4.2, 4.3 and Map 4.1.
• 3% of vehicle users aged 18 and over said that there had been a theft or attempted theft of their vehicle in the 12 months prior to interview. 5% of bicycle users reported a theft or attempted theft. Vehicle crime was higher in Dublin than in the rest of the country. See Table 5.1 and Figure 5.1.
• Around one in five (21%) farming households said their farm had been a victim of crime, mostly trespassing on farm land. See Table 6.1 and Figure 6.1.

View tables on Statbank.