Recorded Crime Q4 2024

The number of recorded crime incidents involving Homicide & Related offences fell by 13% to 77 incidents in 2024 when compared with 2023.

Recorded crime incidents of Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences were down by 10% or 265 to 2,353 incidents over the year. A fall in crime incidents of Blackmail or Extortion accounted for most of this decrease. The number of incidents involving Controlled Drug offences were also down, falling by 7% or 1,129 to 16,119 incidents.

Decreases in the number of recorded crime incidents in some other offence categories were also noted, including Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (-7%), Damage to Property & to the Environment (-2%), and Dangerous or Negligent Acts (-2%).

In contrast, there were increases in the number of incidents involving Sexual offences (+8%), Weapons & Explosives offences (+5%), Public Order & Other Social Code offences (+5%), Theft & Related offences (+3%), Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences (+3%), and Burglary & Related offences (+2%). See Figure 2.1 and Tables 2.1 & 4.1.

Homicides, Robberies and Damage to Property crimes fall while Assaults, Public Order and Sexual offences were up in Q4 2024 compared with Q4 2023

Table 2.2 compares the number of crime incidents by offence category between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024. While the direction of the change between both quarters 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 varied.

In some offence categories, the scale of change in the number of recorded crime incidents was the same or similar and these included:

• Homicide & Related offences – same rate of change (-13%) between quarters and over the year (small volumes in this category).
• Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences (‘Assaults’) - the number of recorded crime incidents increased by 3% both over the quarter and over the year.
• Damage to Property & to the Environment – the number of recorded crime incidents dropped 3% between quarters compared to a fall of 2% over the year.
• Public Order & Other Social Code offences - recorded crime incidents were up by 4% between quarters compared with 5% over the year.

The scale of change for some offence groups, while in the same direction was quite different. These included:

• Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences - the number of recorded crime incidents fell by 15% between quarters compared with a fall of 10% over the year.
• Sexual offences – 16% increase in the number of recorded crime incidents between quarters compared with an increase of 8% over the year.
• Offences Against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime - 18% drop in the number of incidents between quarters compared with a fall of 7% over the year.
• Controlled Drug offences which fell by 4% over the quarter compared with a fall of 7% over the year.

While for some other offence groups, the direction of change was different in addition to quite different scales of change. For example,

• Burglary & Related offences - the number of recorded crime incidents fell by 10% between quarters compared with a 2% rise over the year.
• Weapons & Explosives offences – a fall of 8% in the number of recorded crime incidents between quarters compared with a rise of 5% over the year. See Figure 2.2 and Tables 2.1 & 2.2.

Recorded crime incidents of Theft & Related offences have risen by nearly a half since 2020

Table 2.3 provides further breakdown by offence type of the total number of recorded crime incidents for the full year 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 76,178 recorded crime incidents of Theft & Related offences in 2024 and this has increased by nearly a half (48%) from the 51,448 incidents recorded in 2020. In the intervening years, the number of incidents fell to 46,799 in 2021 and rose to 65,883 in 2022. There were 73,631 recorded crime incidents of this offence type in 2023. As mentioned above, the figures for 2020 and 2021 are likely to have been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of recorded crime incidents have risen for most other offence groups over this five-year period (2020-2024). The most notable percentage increases were:

• Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime – up 31% from 11,011 crime incidents in 2020 to 14,463 in 2024.
• Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences where the number of crime incidents rose by 29% from 19,072 in 2020 to 24,513 incidents in 2024.
• Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences – up 29% from 1,819 crime incidents in 2020 to 2,353 incidents in 2024.

By contrast, the number of recorded crime incidents fell for some other offence groups and these included:

• Controlled Drug offences fell by 30% from 23,120 in 2020 to 16,119 incidents in 2024.
• Burglary & Related offences showed a fall of 10% in the number of recorded crime incidents from 10,886 in 2020 to 9,744 incidents in 2024.
• Dangerous or Negligent Acts – the number of recorded crime incidents dropped 14% from 8,742 in 2020 to 7,497 incidents in 2020. See Figure 2.3 and Table 2.3.