Recorded Crime Q2 2024

The number of recorded crime incidents involving Fraud, Deception & Related offences increased by a fifth (+21% or 2,153) in the year to Q2 2024.

Recorded crime incidents of Burglary & Related offences were up by 9% or 838 and increased incidents of Burglary (not aggravated) accounted for nearly all of this increase. The number of incidents involving Theft & Related offences rose by 8% or 5,354 and nearly half (49%) of such incidents involved theft from shops. Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences were also up by 8% and most of the increase of 195 incidents involved Robbery from the Person.

In contrast, there were decreases in the number of incidents involving Homicide & Related offences (-15%), Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (-13%), Sexual offences (-12%) and Controlled Drug offences (-7%). See Figure 2.1 and Tables 2.1 & 4.1.

Kidnapping and Fraud offences up but Homicides, Controlled Drugs and Sexual offences fall in Q2 2024 compared with Q2 2023

Table 2.2 compares the number of crime incidents by offence category between Q2 2023 and Q2 2024. While the direction of the quarterly change for a number of offence categories was the same as the annualised change (termed 'over the year' below) in Table 2.1, the scale of change was quite different in a number of instances.

Among those offence categories where the scale of change was quite different over the year were:

• Fraud, Deception & Related offences were up 8% between quarters compared with a rise of 21% over the year.
• Burglary & Related offences rose by 2% between quarters and were up by 9% over the year.
• Sexual offences were down 6% between quarters compared with a fall of 12% over the year.
• Homicide & Related offences fell by 27% between quarters and were down by 15% over the year (small volumes in this category).
• Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime were down 8% between quarters compared with a fall of 13% over the year.

However, for some other offence categories, the direction of change was different, and these included:

• Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences which were down 6% between quarters compared with an increase of 8% over the year.
• Public Order & Other Social Code offences were up by 2% between quarters and down 3% over the year.
• Dangerous or Negligent Acts which rose by 2% over the quarter compared with a fall of 2% over the year. See Figure 2.2 and Tables 2.1 & 2.2.

Theft crime at its highest over a five year period

Table 2.3 provides further breakdown by offence type of the total number of recorded crime incidents for the year to Q2 2024 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.

There were 76,501 recorded crime incidents of Theft & Related offences in the year to Q2 2024 and this was the highest over the five year period between 2020 and 2024. In 2020, there were 60,253 recorded incidents of this offence type, and with the onset of the COVID Pandemic, fell to 46,708 incidents by 2021. As Public Health Restrictions eased, there was a sharp increase in 2022 to 57,023 incidents and again in 2023 where there were 71,147 recorded crime incidents.

There has also been significant change in the number of recorded crime incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences over the five year period. In 2024, the 12,643 recorded crime incidents was 56% higher than those 8,083 recorded in 2020. In between those years, the number of crime incidents increased to 11,398 in 2021 before reaching a high of 16,308 in 2022. In 2023 the number of incidents fell back to 10,490.

Among the other offence categories, the 9,858 recorded incidents of Burglary & Related offences in the year to 2024 was still significantly (31%) lower than the 14,389 incidents recorded at the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020. In 2021, there were 9,002 recorded incidents of this offence type that rose to 9,817 in 2022 before falling to 9,020 incidents in 2023.

For the other offence types, the most notable differences between 2024 and the COVID years lay in Controlled Drug offences. The 16,450 incidents recorded in 2024 was about 28% less than the 22,592 incidents recorded in 2020 and the 22,795 incidents in 2021. See Figure 2.3 and Table 2.3.