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.
Introduction
Recorded Crime statistics are produced on a quarterly basis by the Central Statistics Office.
The Recorded Crime electronic publication and related tables provide statistical information on the volume and type of crimes recorded by An Garda Síochána.
Recorded Crime statistics are categorised by the Central Statistics Office as Statistics Under Reservation. This category is used to keep users informed about the quality of statistical outputs, and arises because of ongoing data quality issues within the data source. In the case of PULSE data, it informs users that Recorded Crime statistics based on recorded incidents on PULSE may understate or overstate the prevalence of reported offences and may be subject to revisions in subsequent statistical publications.
Please see Statistics Under Reservation FAQs for further information.
Data Source
Recorded Crime statistics are compiled exclusively from administrative records created and maintained by An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s National Police and Security Service, on their incident recording system PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively).
Published figures may be subject to revision as underlying records are subject to update, review or revision by An Garda Síochána as investigations progress.
Data Collection
Crimes reported to, or which become known to, An Garda Síochána are recorded as crime incidents if a member of An Garda Síochána determines that, on the balance of probability, a criminal offence defined by law has taken place, and there is no credible evidence to the contrary.
The rules governing how crimes are to be recorded by An Garda Síochána are provided in the Crime Counting Rules document. The document, reproduced with permission from An Garda Síochána Crime Counting Rules (PDF 440KB) , explains the rationale for whether or not to record a crime incident and what to record, and provides guidance for the classification, reclassification, and invalidation of crime incident records, and for recording whether a crime incident has been detected.
Crime incidents are classified by type according to a set of approximately 200 different incident types (e.g. murder, assault, burglary).
Crime incidents are recorded against the Garda sub-district in which the offence was committed, or where it was reported if the place of commission cannot be determined.
Compilation of Recorded Crime statistics
The Central Statistics Office is in receipt of a single regular data extract from the PULSE database, updated each quarter. The data extract comprises a subset of the data held on the PULSE database, configured for the specific purpose of compiling Recorded Crime statistics.
Only valid, primary crime incidents assigned to a valid Garda sub-district within the State are included in Recorded Crime statistics.
Recorded Crime incidents are differentiated by type, reporting period and location for statistical purposes:
The ‘incident type’ variable, as recorded on PULSE, is used to differentiate between crimes of different type.
The set of PULSE incident types is mapped to the Irish Crime Classification System (ICCS) for statistical reporting.
The Recorded Crime publication does not include Groups 14 and 16 of the ICCS, and includes only some subcategories of Group 4. This is because some offences (i.e. specified road traffic offences) are initially recorded as Fixed Charge Notice offences on a separate database and are only recorded on PULSE if the offender fails to pay the fine within the specified time period. Statistics on Fixed Charge Notice offences are not published by the CSO at present.
The ‘date reported’ variable, as recorded on PULSE, is used to differentiate between different reporting time periods i.e. by quarter and by year.
It is the date the crime is reported, rather the date the crime occurred, which is used for statistical reporting, in line with international best practice.
The Station (or Garda sub-district) variable, as recorded on PULSE, is used to aggregate crime incidents up to administrative areas such as Garda Divisions and Garda Regions.
For stations which have been closed, crime incidents are reassigned to the Garda sub-district which assumed responsibility for the area of the closed station.
Data edits for statistical purposes
Recorded Crime statistics are based on the unedited records of An Garda Síochána, except in the following circumstances:
ICCSQ Offence Groups
01 |
Homicide offences |
Murder |
02 |
Sexual offences |
Rape of a male or female |
03 |
Attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences |
Murder – attempt |
04 |
Dangerous or negligent acts |
Dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm |
05 |
Kidnapping and related offences |
False imprisonment |
06 |
Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences |
Robbery of an establishment or institution |
07 |
Burglary and related offences |
Aggravated burglary |
08 |
Theft and related offences |
Theft/Unauthorised taking of a vehicle |
09 |
Fraud, deception and related offences |
Fraud, deception, false pretence offences |
10 |
Controlled drug offences |
Importation of drugs |
11 |
Weapons and explosives offences |
Causing an explosion |
12 |
Damage to property and to the environment |
Arson |
13 |
Public order and other social code offences |
Affray/Riot/Violent disorder |
14 |
Road and traffic offences (NEC) |
Driving licence-failure to have, produce etc. |
15 |
Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime |
Treason |
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