Society Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2016

Introduction - Crime

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The statistics in this chapter relate to a number of aspects of justice and defence. They have been obtained from the Garda Síochána, the Prison Service, the Probation Service and the Central Statistics Office. Crime figures are provided for the number of offences recorded by the Garda Síochána. These are based on the Irish Crime Classification System (ICCS).

Probation recidivism provides figures for the re-offending rates of those placed on Probation Orders and Community Service Orders. Prison recidivism provides figures for the re-offending rates of those released from the custody of the Irish Prison Service.

Recorded offences

4.1 Recorded offences classified by group, 2010 to 2015


Offence		2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015

01	Homicide offences	89	66	79	83	80	62
02	Sexual offences	2,366	2,014	2,116	2,010	2,053	2,356
03	Attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences	17,703	17,062	15,710	14,502	15,164	16,984
04	Dangerous or negligent acts	12,093	9,946	9,051	7,660	7,298	7,225
05	Kidnapping and related offences	134	109	101	124	124	153
06	Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences	3,196	2,931	2,817	2,806	2,647	2,576
07	Burglary and related offences	25,420	27,695	28,133	26,218	27,635	26,259
08	Theft and related offences	76,826	76,974	76,402	78,737	77,697	75,876
09	Fraud, deception and related offences	4,988	5,370	5,790	4,824	5,178	5,588
10	Controlled drug offences	20,004	17,695	16,450	15,372	15,915	15,096
11	Weapons and explosives offences	4,099	3,483	3,038	2,750	2,479	2,374
12	Damage to property and to the environment	39,369	35,573	32,428	28,913	27,394	26,053
13	Public order and other social code offences	54,941	49,060	43,861	36,453	32,639	33,280
15	Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime	11,397	10,172	9,445	9,187	9,765	11,376
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.1 Recorded offences classified by group, 2010 to 2015 (XLS 33KB)

Interactive table: StatBank link

Show Graph - 4.1 Recorded offences in selected groups

	Dangerous or negligent acts	Burglary and related offences	Controlled drug offences	Public order and other social code offences
2010	12093	25420	20004	54941
2011	9946	27695	17695	49060
2012	9051	28133	16450	43861
2013	7660	26218	15372	36453
2014	7298	27635	15915	32639
2015	7225	26259	15096	33280

Comparing recorded offences between 2014 and 2015, falls continued in most offence groups. There were falls in Homicide offences (80 to 62), rises in Kidnapping and related offences (124 to 153) and falls in Theft and related offences (77,697 to 75,876) and Burglary and related offences (27,635 to 26,259).

Incidents of Assaults and Burglary

4.2 Incidents of Assaults and Burglary, recorded, per 100,000 population, detections and with relevant proceedings, 2013

Offence	Garda region	Recorded	Per 100,000 population	Detected	Detection rate (%)	With relevant proceedings

Assaults	Northern	1,909	367.7	1,333	69.8	741
	Western	1,672	284.3	1,044	62.4	468
	Southern	2,850	328.2	2,048	71.9	899
	Eastern	2,222	287.6	1,413	63.6	630
	South Eastern	1,736	304.2	1,239	71.4	524
	Dublin Metropolitan	4,113	322.8	1,889	45.9	975
	State	14,502	315.7	8,966	61.8	4,237

Burglary	Northern	2,241	431.6	499	22.3	299
	Western	2,043	347.3	429	21.0	254
	Southern	2,881	331.8	947	32.9	632
	Eastern	4,903	634.6	888	18.1	521
	South Eastern	3,730	653.7	800	21.4	462
	Dublin Metropolitan	10,420	817.7	1,791	17.2	1,293
	State	26,218	570.8	5,354	20.4	3,461
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.2 Incidents of Assaults and Burglary, recorded, per 100,000 population, detections and with relevant proceedings, 2013 (XLS 32KB)

Interactive table: StatBank link

Comparing per capita figures for 2013, the Northern Region was the highest for recorded Assaults offences, with 367.7 offences per 100,000, while the Western Region had the lowest (284.3 per 100,000).

For 2013, almost 40% of Burglary offences were recorded in the Dublin Metropolitan Region.

Probation recidivism

4.3 Probation offender numbers and whether there was a re-offence within three years, 2008 and 2009 cohort

		2008 cohort				2009 cohort
		Re-offence within three years			Recidivism rate	Re-offence within three years			Recidivism rate	Recidivism rate
		Yes	No	Total	%	Yes	No	Total	%	Absolute change

Total offenders		1,543	2,218	3,761	41.0	1,436	2,418	3,854	37.3	- 3.8

Sex
	Male	1,373	1,888	3,261	42.1	1,279	2,059	3,338	38.3	- 3.8
	Female	170	330	500	34.0	157	359	516	30.4	- 3.6

Male age group
	<18	142	95	237	59.9	133	71	204	65.2	+5.3
	18-24	677	800	1,477	45.8	590	829	1,419	41.6	- 4.3
	25-44	515	854	1,369	37.6	512	1,015	1,527	33.5	- 4.1
	45-64	39	122	161	24.2	44	130	174	25.3	+1.1
	65 +	0	17	17	0.0	0	14	14	0.0	0.0

Female age group
	<18	19	21	40	47.5	11	16	27	40.7	- 6.8
	18-24	57	116	173	32.9	62	122	184	33.7	+0.7
	25-44	81	168	249	32.5	74	189	263	28.1	- 4.4
	45-64	12	23	35	34.3	10	31	41	24.4	- 9.9
	65 +	1	2	3	33.3	0	1	1	0.0	-33.3

All persons age group
	<18	161	116	277	58.1	144	87	231	62.3	+4.2
	18-24	734	916	1,650	44.5	652	951	1,603	40.7	- 3.8
	25-44	596	1,022	1,618	36.8	586	1,204	1,790	32.7	- 4.1
	45-64	51	145	196	26.0	54	161	215	25.1	- 0.9
	65 +	1	19	20	5.0	0	15	15	0.0	- 5.0

Probation type
	Community service	463	742	1,205	38.4	486	1,008	1,494	32.5	- 5.9
	Probation order	1,080	1,476	2,556	42.3	950	1,410	2,360	40.3	- 2.0

Probation referral offence
01	Homicide offences	1	6	7	14.3	0	2	2	0.0	-14.3
02	Sexual offences	5	29	34	14.7	4	22	26	15.4	+0.7
03	Attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences	169	274	443	38.1	143	291	434	32.9	- 5.2
04	Dangerous or negligent acts	62	134	196	31.6	59	166	225	26.2	- 5.4
05	Kidnapping and related offences	0	1	1	0.0	1	0	1	100.0	+100.0
06	Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences	31	42	73	42.5	24	50	74	32.4	-10.0
07	Burglary and related offences	103	107	210	49.0	118	121	239	49.4	+0.3
08	Theft and related offences	320	415	735	43.5	304	423	727	41.8	- 1.7
09	Fraud, deception and related offences	18	30	48	37.5	13	53	66	19.7	-17.8
10	Controlled drug offences	212	355	567	37.4	210	381	591	35.5	- 1.9
11	Weapons and explosives offences	58	61	119	48.7	52	71	123	42.3	- 6.5
12	Damage to property and to the environment	97	110	207	46.9	85	140	225	37.8	- 9.1
13	Public order and other social code offences	329	418	747	44.0	294	413	707	41.6	- 2.5
14	Road and traffic offences (NEC)	73	147	220	33.2	86	206	292	29.5	- 3.7
15	Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime	57	81	138	41.3	42	66	108	38.9	- 2.4
16	Offences not elsewhere classified	2	0	2	100.0	0	3	3	0.0	-100.0
	Not stated	6	8	14	42.9	1	10	11	9.1	-33.8
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.3 Probation offender numbers and whether there was a re-offence within three years, 2008 and 2009 cohort (XLS 39KB)

In 2009, 3,854 individuals (cases) were placed on Probation orders or Community service orders. Of these, 1,436 (37.3%) re-offended within a three-year period, a fall of 3.8% between 2008 and 2009. When considering age and sex, these trends were repeated. Recidivism among males fell by 3.8% to 38.3% in 2009 while female recidivism fell by 3.6% to 30.4% in the same period. Falls in the recidivism rates were also observed in the majority of all persons age groups.

Of the 1,436 individuals who re-offended, 40.4% did so within the first twelve months, while an additional 32.3% did so within 12 to 24 months of referral to the Probation Service.

	Probation re-offenders by time period to first re-offence %
0<6	23.1
6<12	17.3
12<18	17.8
18<24	14.5
24<30	14.4
30<36	13.0

Prison recidivism

4.4 Prisoner offender numbers and whether there was a re-offence within three years, 2008 and 2009 cohort

		2008 cohort				2009 cohort
		Re-offence within three years			Recidivism rate	Re-offence within three years			Recidivism rate	Recidivism rate
		Yes	No	Total	%	Yes	No	Total	%	Absolute change

Total offenders		2,802	2,687	5,489	51.0	3,563	3,944	7,507	47.5	- 3.6

Sex
	Male	2,568	2,415	4,983	51.5	3,254	3,503	6,757	48.2	- 3.4
	Female	234	272	506	46.2	309	441	750	41.2	- 5.0

Male age group
	<21 years	365	268	633	57.7	465	376	841	55.3	- 2.4
	21-25	783	641	1,424	55.0	1,027	867	1,894	54.2	- 0.8
	26-30	554	454	1,008	55.0	689	712	1,401	49.2	- 5.8
	31-35	335	320	655	51.1	444	517	961	46.2	- 4.9
	36-40	239	225	464	51.5	270	343	613	44.0	- 7.5
	41-50	227	336	563	40.3	286	445	731	39.1	- 1.2
	51-60	51	123	174	29.3	62	179	241	25.7	- 3.6
	61 +	14	48	62	22.6	11	64	75	14.7	- 7.9

Female age group
	<21 years	14	20	34	41.2	31	40	71	43.7	+2.5
	21-25	65	51	116	56.0	99	100	199	49.7	- 6.3
	26-30	45	71	116	38.8	63	100	163	38.7	- 0.1
	31-35	48	53	101	47.5	54	71	125	43.2	- 4.3
	36-40	30	32	62	48.4	27	48	75	36.0	-12.4
	41-50	26	35	61	42.6	24	70	94	25.5	-17.1
	51-60	5	8	13	38.5	9	11	20	45.0	+6.5
	61 +	1	2	3	33.3	2	1	3	66.7	+33.3

All persons age group
	<21 years	379	288	667	56.8	496	416	912	54.4	- 2.4
	21-25	848	692	1,540	55.1	1,126	967	2,093	53.8	- 1.3
	26-30	599	525	1,124	53.3	752	812	1,564	48.1	- 5.2
	31-35	383	373	756	50.7	498	588	1,086	45.9	- 4.8
	36-40	269	257	526	51.1	297	391	688	43.2	- 8.0
	41-50	253	371	624	40.5	310	515	825	37.6	- 3.0
	51-60	56	131	187	29.9	71	190	261	27.2	- 2.7
	61 +	15	50	65	23.1	13	65	78	16.7	- 6.4

Initial imprisonment offence
01	Homicide offences	16	18	34	47.1	12	25	37	32.4	-14.6
02	Sexual offences	11	63	74	14.9	19	71	90	21.1	+6.2
03	Attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences	251	182	433	58.0	256	199	455	56.3	- 1.7
04	Dangerous or negligent acts	203	302	505	40.2	292	516	808	36.1	- 4.1
05	Kidnapping and related offences	7	4	11	63.6	7	5	12	58.3	- 5.3
06	Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences	18	22	40	45.0	25	13	38	65.8	+20.8
07	Burglary and related offences	96	62	158	60.8	128	55	183	69.9	+9.2
08	Theft and related offences	441	283	724	60.9	481	252	733	65.6	+4.7
09	Fraud, deception and related offences	35	79	114	30.7	41	110	151	27.2	- 3.5
10	Controlled drug offences	192	200	392	49.0	228	260	488	46.7	- 2.3
11	Weapons and explosives offences	75	72	147	51.0	99	56	155	63.9	+12.9
12	Damage to property and to the environment	164	124	288	56.9	198	128	326	60.7	+3.8
13	Public order and other social code offences	549	290	839	65.4	716	467	1,183	60.5	- 4.9
14	Road and traffic offences (NEC)	390	715	1105	35.3	543	1,288	1,831	29.7	- 5.6
15	Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime	224	103	327	68.5	373	243	616	60.6	- 7.9
16	Offences not elsewhere classified	130	168	298	43.6	145	256	401	36.2	- 7.5
Source: CSO

Open in Excel: 4.4 Prison offender numbers and whether there was a re-offence within three years, 2008 and 2009 cohort (XLS 40KB)

In 2009, 7,507 individuals (cases) were released from the custody of the Irish Prison Service. Of these, 3,563 (47.5%) re-offended within a three-year period, a decrease from the 51.0% recorded in 2008. This fall is also visible, when considering the demographics of offenders. Male re-offending fell from 51.5% to 48.2% between 2008 and 2009 while female re-offending rates fell from 46.2% to 41.2%.

Of the 3,563 individuals who re-offended, the great majority (2,304 or 64.7%) did so within the first six months of official release from custody.

	Prison re-offenders by months to first re-offence %
0<6	64.7
6<12	14.8
12<18	9.0
18<24	5.2
24<36	6.4

Go to next chapter >>>Environment

Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2016

Crime

Introduction - Crime

Recorded offences

Incidents of Assaults and Burglary

Probation recidivism

Prison recidivism

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