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Fraud crime in 2022 fell by 32% or 5,461 incidents from 2021 levels.
Theft crime rose by 41% to 65,986 incidents in 2022, which was the highest rate of increase in any crime category.
Most other crime categories increased over the year with the highest rates of increase in Homicide & Related offences (+30%), Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences (+19%); Attempts/Threats to Murder; Assaults, Harassments & Related offences (+17%) and Burglary & Related offences (+10%).
Controlled Drugs offences fell by 13% while Dangerous or Negligent Acts were down by 1%.
Fraud crime in Quarter 4 (Q4) 2022 was down 56% from the same quarter in 2021.
Male victims of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences increased by 5% in Q4 2022 when compared with Q4 2021, while there was a 4% increase in female victims.
Recorded Crime statistics continue to be categorised as Statistics Under Reservation.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (31 March 2023) released Recorded Crime Quarter 4 2022.
Commenting on the publication, Jim Dalton, Statistician in the Crime & Criminal Justice Section, said: “Recorded Crime statistics published today for Quarter 4 (Q4) 2022 showed a very significant fall in Fraud crime in 2022 while most other categories of crime were up compared with a year earlier.
Fraud crime fell by almost a third in 2022
Fraud crime in 2022 fell by 32% or 5,461 incidents from 2021, while Theft crime increased by 41% to 65,986 incidents in 2022, which was the highest rate of increase in any crime category.
Among the other crime categories, the highest rates of increase over the year were in Homicide & Related offences (+30%), Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences (+19%); Attempts/Threats to Murder; Assaults, Harassments & Related offences (+17%) and Burglary & Related offences (+10%).
However, Controlled Drugs offences fell by 13% while Dangerous or Negligent Acts offences were down by 1%.
Fraud crime down by over a half in Q4 2022 from Q4 2021
There were 2,310 recorded incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences in Q4 2022, and this was down 56% or by 2,987 incidents from a year earlier. This was largely driven by a fall in unauthorised transactions and attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone. In contrast, Homicide & Related offences were up 73% to 19 incidents and Theft & Related offences increased by 27% or 3,631 to 16,888 incidents in Q4 2022.
Victims of Assaults offences up in Q4 2022
Victims of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences during Q4 2022 increased by 4% from the corresponding period in 2021. Male victims increased by 5% while female victims increased by 4%. When you look at the profile of victims by age, the highest rates of increase in victims of Assault crimes were among males aged 45-59 years (+22%) and males aged 60 years or over (+24%).
Impact of COVID-19 on data for 2020 and 2021
The figures for 2020 and 2021 for some crime categories are likely to have been influenced by the public health restrictions imposed as a result of COVID-19.
Please see Table 4.1 of the publication for further information on the constituents of each crime category (Table 4.1).