A core principle for assessing the quality of official statistics is relevance - that “statistics meet the needs of users”.
User needs for Recorded Crime statistics are identified through the various interactions between the CSO and key users of Recorded Crime statistics, and are communicated to the CSO via questionnaires, Working Groups, user consultation, ad hoc statistical data requests, etc. Statistical outputs are designed to try to meet user needs as far as possible given the constraints of data availability and the demands of statistical quality.
There are various characteristics of crime which users of Recorded Crime statistics are interested in, and these broadly fall into four themes which form a conceptual framework for statistical reporting, summarised as follows:
This chapter examines user needs for Recorded Crime statistics in terms of the availability of PULSE data for compiling statistics according to the framework above.
The main users of Recorded Crime statistics compiled by the CSO include:
Recorded Crime statistics compiled by the CSO are intended to inform users about the set of criminal offences which are reported to, or become known to, AGS.
Users are most frequently interested in counts of criminal offences reported disaggregated by the type of offence, by when the offence was reported (i.e., reference period), and by where the offence took place. Users are increasingly looking for more contextual detail about criminal offences, such as whether an offence featured a discriminatory motive, occurred within a domestic setting or relationship, involved the use of weapons such as firearms or knives, was related to organised crime, or was cyber-related (facilitated by use of computer data or computer systems). This is especially true of more serious criminal offence types, such as homicide.
According to the PULSE crime recording guide, “a criminal offence is recorded when there is a reasonable probability that a criminal offence took place and there is no credible evidence to the contrary. A criminal offence is recorded by recording an appropriate PULSE crime incident”. As such it is the PULSE crime incident, as recorded by AGS, which is used as the counting unit for criminal offences in Recorded Crime statistics.
The classification of the crime incident by criminal offence type, and the recording of the date reported and the Garda sub-district (i.e., station) where the offence took place are mandatory for all PULSE crime incidents. These data are used by the CSO to compile statistics on crime incidents disaggregated by criminal offence type, reference period and administrative region (i.e., Garda regions and divisions). These statistics are reported in the CSO’s quarterly Recorded Crime series.
The type of offence is classified on PULSE according to a set of approximately 200 different crime incident types. For statistical reporting, the CSO groups similar PULSE incident types using the Irish Crime Classification System (ICCS). International bodies such as Eurostat and UNODC have adopted the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (also known as ICCS, but abbreviated ICCSP in this document for clear distinction) for most statistical reporting. Aligning national crime recording systems to an international standard is a ‘work-in-progress’ given the challenges associated with different laws, administrative structures and crime data systems across different countries.
The date most frequently used for reporting crime statistics is the date the crime was reported to, or became known to, AGS, in line with international best practice. The date a crime occurred, also recorded on PULSE, is sometimes much earlier than the date reported (e.g., historic sexual offences). This is used by the CSO in certain statistics, for example to analyse the gap in time between the occurrence of an offence and its subsequent reporting to AGS.
Crime incidents on PULSE are recorded with location information such as the street address (where it is possible), the local AGS sub-district (i.e., garda station), and geographical co-ordinate data. AGS has also implemented the recording of Eircodes in respect of address data. The CSO uses the Garda sub-district recorded in respect of each crime incident to compile statistics according to Garda administrative areas (i.e., regions, divisions). The AGS are also in the course of rolling out a new Operations Model. This will involve a fundamental change to the organisational structure from the existing District Based Model to a new Divisional Functional Area Model.
Contextual data relating to characteristics of criminal offences such as the presence of discriminatory motives, domestic abuse, or the use of weapons is captured by AGS recording such characteristics in the ‘modus operandi’ (MO) data field in PULSE.
A number of PULSE crime incident types have been introduced to specifically capture cyber-related crimes such as accessing information systems without authority or interference with data or information systems. The AGS have also introduced new data fields to capture the cyber-related nature of some other crimes such as the recording and distributing of intimate images or offensive communication to cause harm. However, these are not exhaustive given the quickly evolving nature of cybercrime and it is likely that there will be ongoing development in this area.
Where persons have been the victims of reported crimes, statistical users are often interested in obtaining aggregate profiles relating to victims. Requests for statistics often relate to the age and sex of victims, the relationship of victims to perpetrators, the nationality or ethnicity of victims, as well as contextual information such as whether the crimes affecting those victims featured a discriminatory motive, occurred within a domestic setting or relationship, involved the use of weapons such as firearms or knives, or were cyber-related.
Where a person is the victim of a criminal offence, details of the person are recorded on PULSE and the person is classified as the ‘injured party’. Not all criminal offences have a victim who is a person, but crimes such as homicide, physical and sexual violence, robbery from the person and theft from the person would have an identified victim in almost all cases. Data on the sex and date of birth of the person are routinely recorded on PULSE and the CSO uses these data to compile annual statistics in respect of victims of serious crimes such as homicide, sexual violence and assaults classified by sex and age group. In respect of offences of sexual violence (i.e., rape and sexual assault) where it is the case that many reported offences are historic, additional statistics are compiled which consider the time period between the occurrence of an offence and its subsequent reporting to AGS.
AGS have since Quarter 3, 2021 captured the relationship type between victim and perpetrator (e.g., current or former intimate partners, from the same family, or known to each other at all) on PULSE. This has enabled the CSO to publish first data on the relationship between victims and reported suspects (as reported by the victim at the time of the crime) for Sexual and Assault offences in early 2023.
Data on nationality or ethnicity of victims is not widely collected on PULSE and is not used by the CSO for statistical purposes.
A crime is considered to have been detected when a person has been identified as the perpetrator by AGS and that person has been issued with a sanction such as a charge, summons or caution. The person sanctioned is termed the suspected offender. Although it is the case that some investigations conclude with no suspect formally sanctioned, the detection is the most widely used measure of a policing outcome to criminal offences.
Users are interested in rates of detection and types of detection (i.e., prosecution or caution etc.) and how these vary according to the type of criminal offence, the reference period and by region. For prosecuted offences, users are interested in the outcomes of criminal proceedings, such as those which result in conviction, as well as the types of orders or sentences imposed.
New data governance controls for recording detections and for updating the detection status of crime incidents and suspected persons were implemented on PULSE in 2018. The recording of an instance of a sanction (e.g., charge, summons, caution, etc.) on PULSE now automatically updates the detection status of a PULSE crime incident and the detection status of a suspected person including classifying them as the suspected offender. These new governance controls support more reliable data outputs.
The CSO publishes statistics on the proportion of PULSE crime incidents (as published in the Recorded Crime series) which have been detected and which have resulted in charge or summons disaggregated by the year the offence was reported, the criminal offence type (i.e., PULSE incident type) and Garda administrative area. The CSO also compiles statistics relating to persons detected and the type of sanction administered by offence type and reference period. The changes in PULSE in respect of recording detections in 2018 means that data recorded prior to 2018 are not directly comparable and, consequently, the CSO publishes statistics relating to detections and suspected offenders as a new series beginning at reference year 2018.
There is demand among users for statistics on prosecutions and court outcomes relating to certain criminal acts and also to specific Acts or Articles of legislation. In the case of the former, the CSO is in the course of extending published crimes statistics to include prosecutions and court outcomes and so will be able to give a full picture of the number of crime incidents in a particular year, the rate of detection and of these, the sanctions applied for the offence and the rate of conviction in the courts. In the case of the latter, it is not possible at the moment due to challenges matching PULSE offence codes to articles of legislation.
The development of the full crime series from crime incident to court conviction does however come with some quality caveats. The outcomes of criminal proceedings in Irish Courts are registered on PULSE in two different ways. Data on court outcomes from the District Court are transferred to PULSE automatically, but outcomes from the higher courts are required to be manually input on PULSE by Garda members. There is no systematic national system in AGS for reviewing the quality and completeness of Higher Court Outcomes on PULSE. This can be an opportunity for improvement over time.
A person who is identified as being responsible for having committed a criminal offence, and is sanctioned accordingly by AGS, is termed a suspected offender. Similar to victims of crime, the sex and date of birth of suspected offenders is routinely recorded on PULSE and this facilitates the compilation of statistics on suspected offenders by sex and age group, by crime offence type and reference period, and by sanction type.
For reasons already outlined, the CSO publishes statistical data in respect of suspected offenders as a new series starting at reference year 2018. Again, for reasons already outlined, the CSO does not compile statistics on nationality or ethnicity of suspected offenders, on motives or use of weapons, or on court outcomes.
The CSO's outputs are designed to try to meet user needs as far as possible given the constraints of data availability and the demands of statistical quality. The CSO continues to develop the statistical products it compiles from PULSE data in line with user needs and in response to verified improvements in data quality, for example, the relationship between victims and perpetrators for sexual and assault offences based on good quality data collected by AGS on same.
In summary the following user needs are considered, for the most part to be met:
The following user needs are not currently met:
Statistics on prosecutions and convictions by specific offence (i.e., Act or Article) is not yet possible due to reasons outlined above.
See Appendix 1 for a summary table detailing the above.
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