Recorded Crime Q2 2023

There were 71 recorded incidents of Homicide & Related offences in the year to Q2 2023 an increase of 31% or 17 incidents from the same period in 2022. Murders, which nearly doubled from 24 to 47 incidents contributed to nearly all of this increase. See Figure 2.1 and Tables 2.1 and 4.1.

The number of recorded crime incidents of Theft & Related offences were up by 25% or 14,133 to 71,284 incidents over the same period. Nearly half of this increase was due to Theft from Shops.

Recorded incidents of Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences increased by 21% or 410 to 2,328 in the year to Q2 2023 and Robbery from the person and Blackmail or Extortion accounted for most of this increase.

Incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences however were down by 37% or 5,923 to 10,300 incidents over the same period. This was due mostly to a fall in incidents of unauthorised transactions and attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone. 

Most other offence categories of recorded crime increased in the year to Q2 2023 with the largest rates of increase being Damage to Property & the Environment (+7% or +1,530), Controlled Drug offences (+6% or +971) and Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (+6% or +772). Sexual offences were up by 1% to 3,658 incidents over the same period. 

In contrast, the highest rate of decrease among other offence categories were for Kidnapping & Related offences (-13% or -21), Dangerous or Negligent Acts (-11% or -957) and Burglary & Related offences (-8% or -819). 

Theft crime up and fraud crime down in Q2 2023 compared with Q2 2022

Table 2.2 compares the number of crime incidents by offence category between Q2 2022 and Q2 2023. For most crime categories, the upward or downward trend between both quarters is similar to the year to date changes in Table 2.1 above but there are some differences in the scale of change.

For example, Theft & Related offences were up 12% between both quarters compared to an increase of 25% over the year and Fraud, Deception & Related offences were down 6% between quarters compared to a fall of 37% over the year. Crime incidents involving Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking expenses were up 34% between quarters compared to an increase of 21% over the year. See Figure 2.2, Table 2.1 and Table 2.2.

For some offence categories, the trend was in the opposite direction. The number of incidents classified as Homicide & Related offences was down 8% between Q2 2022 and Q2 2023 compared to an increase of 31% on a year to date basis. Incidents involving Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime were down 23% between both quarters but up 6% on a year to date basis. In addition, recorded incidents classified as Sexual offences were down 8% but up by 1% in the year to Q2 2023. 

Largest changes have been in burglary and fraud crimes since 2019

Table 2.3 provides further breakdown by offence type of the total number of recorded crime incidents for the year to Q2 2023 compared with earlier years. Data for 2020 and 2021 are likely to have been impacted by public health restrictions in place at the time due to COVID-19.

The number of Burglary & Related offence crime incidents at 9,004 in the year to Q2 2023 was just under half (46%) of the 16,583 incidents recorded in the year to Q2 2019. The impact of COVID-19 public health restrictions was very evident in the intervening period when the number of recorded incidents fell to 9,004 reported incidents in 2021 before rising to 9,823 in 2022. See Figure 2.3 and Table 2.3.

The number of incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences in the year to Q2 2023 at 10,300 was up 41% on the 7,304 incidents in the year to Q2 2019. The number of recorded crime incidents for this category had been increasing steadily in the same periods in 2020 and 2021 before reaching a high of 16,223 in the year to Q2 2022. 

For the other offence categories, the largest changes were in Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences (+13%), Dangerous or Negligent Acts (-12%) and Controlled Drug offences (-12%).