Worrying increase in knife-related murders
Figures supplied to the Irish Examiner show the number of knife-related murders rose from 15 in 2008 to 19 in 2009 – a jump of 27%.
Provisional data, supplied by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), also reveals a hike in robberies involving knives:
* Cases of robbery of an establishment or institution jumped by 34%, from 372 to 451.
* Robbery from the person increased by 10%, from 311 to 343.
Assaults causing harm involving knives increased marginally, from 336 to 341. CSO figures show this form of serious assault has been occurring at a much higher rate in the last two years compared to the preceding five years.
The number of aggravated burglaries involving knives fell by 18% last year, from 131 to 108.
This figure has fluctuated over the last seven years, reaching a peak in 2008.
In total, the number of all violent offences involving knives increased from 1,170 in 2008 to 1,264 in 2009, a rise of 8%. Last year’s total is the highest annual tally for the last seven years, although the figure has gone up and down over that period.
The figures come as a Garda knife awareness campaign, entitled How Big Do You Feel?, finished its one-year campaign last Friday.
This campaign, launched on February 5, 2009, specifically targeted young people under 18, particularly those at transition year level.
Separate figures, from the gardaí, supplied to the Irish Examiner provide a breakdown across Garda divisions of the 19 knife-related murders last year:
* Six in Dublin (four in Dublin West and one each in Dublin south and north central).
* Two each in Cork city, Kerry, Wicklow and Mayo.
* One each in Galway, Kilkenny/Carlow, Limerick, Laois/Offaly and Meath.
While the number of knife-related murders increased last year, it is nowhere near the peak of 2007, when there were 32 such murders.
The figure for 2009 is more in line with the figures for 2005 and 2006 (18 and 21 respectively).
Other figures published by the CSO last week show there were 2,951 cases of possession of an offensive weapon (mainly knives) in 2009, a slight drop on 2008 (2,979).
The figures for the last two years are significantly higher than for previous years, although gardaí maintain the increase is in large part due to greater garda enforcement in this area.
Other data, from the Garda Diversion Programme – dealing with juvenile crime – shows there were 440 cases of possession of an offensive weapon in 2008, compared to 432 in 2007.
