CSO numbers highlight rise in robberies and sexual offences in the last year

Statistics from the Central Statistics Office show that there has been a rise of more than 10% in the number of reported sexual offences in the last year.

The figures released today by the CSO show that there have been increases in most crime categories in the last 12 months up to the end of September this year.

The greatest increases were in Robbery which is up 22.7% and Sexual Offences which is up 11.7%.

The number of recorded incidents of Damage to property and the environment fell by 7.4% in the period, while there has been a sustained drop in incidents of Burglary since 2014.

Thefts have dropped in four of the five years since 2014.

Olive Loughnane, a Statistician at the CSO, said: “In March, the CSO resumed publication of Recorded Crime statistics using the category of Statistics Under Reservation to provide the best available measure of police-recorded crime in Ireland while informing users of their concerns regarding the quality of the underlying data."

Some of the key findings from the CSO numbers:
• Robbery shows the largest increase, up 22.7%
• Sexual offences up 11.7%
• Damage to property and the environment down 7.4%
• Burglaries and Thefts down 6.4% and 3.2% respectively

"The categorisation of Recorded Crime statistics as Statistics Under Reservation will remain in place until the CSO is satisfied that the level of accuracy and completeness of the underlying data is of sufficient quality.

"The CSO is committed to assisting AGS in improving data quality wherever possible, and have proposed a data quality improvement plan to AGS. The criteria in this plan address quality concerns across a broad range of issues relating to the recording and classification of crime.”

This is the fourth quarterly release by the CSO following the decision to resume publication of crime statistics using the category of Statistics Under Reservation.

The category was introduced to highlight concerns regarding the quality of underlying data from An Garda Síochána’s PULSE database and to inform users that revisions to the statistics can be expected as work is undertaken to resolve data quality issues.