Sharp rise in assaults, rapes and fraud offences

Increase in fraud offences 'was largely driven by unauthorised transactions and attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone'. Picture: iStock

Serious assaults, rapes and fraud offences have all risen sharply in the last year, according to official figures.

Threats of murder, shootings and kidnappings, particularly abductions of children, also increased.

A number of serious crimes have fallen — including homicide offences, drug offences and possession of firearms.

A geographic breakdown of Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures shows the greatest increases in fraud offences, kidnappings and sex crimes in the last year have been in the southern region.

Fraud crimes nearly doubled in the year to Q1 2022https://t.co/7nuI5yNPTh #CSOIreland #Ireland #Crime #RecordedCrime #CrimeStatistics #CrimeStats pic.twitter.com/NCL2QO21r0

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) June 27, 2022

The CSO figures continue to be published "under reservation", meaning that, while the data is “the best information available”, the agency has “quality issues in the underlying sources” used for the statistics.

Comparing the year ending March (Q1) 2021, to the year ending March (Q1) 2022, the CSO figures show a 12.5% increase in the category or ‘sexual offences’, from 3,106 to 3,493.

A further breakdown of reported sexual offences reveals:

• A 22% increase in rape offences (777 to 950);
• A 17% increase in sexual assault (1,601 to 1,880);
• A 34% reduction in sexual assault (defilement) of a minor (220 to 144);
• An 80% increase in sexual offences involving a person with a mental impairment (10 to 18) 

In terms of the ‘assault category’, there was an overall increase of 19% in offences, from 18,429 to 21,904.

A breakdown of this category shows:

• A 31% jump in assaults causing harm (4,081 to 5,352);
• An 18% increase in less serious assaults (10,978 to 12,918);
• A 9% increase in threats to kill or cause serious harm (1,578 to 1,726);
• A 6.5% rise in harassment offences (1,778 to 1,894);
• No change in attempted murders (14)

The CSO figures reveal the extent of the rise in fraud-related offences, almost doubling in the last year.

“There were 17,354 frauds recorded in the 12-month period compared to just 9,219 in the previous year, an increase of 88%," said Jim Dalton, statistician in the Crime & Criminal Justice Section.

"The increase was largely driven by unauthorised transactions and attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone."

Robberies rose by 7% in the last year, including a 13.5% rise in robberies of banks and post offices and a 56% jump in incidents of blackmail or extortion.

Burglaries more than halved between year ending Q1 2018 and year ending Q1 2021 – from 18,693 to 8,933. That increased to 9,270 in the last year.

Theft-related offences show a similar trend, decreasing to year end Q1 2021, rising by 10% in the last year.

Homicide offences have more than halved — from 95 in year ending Q1 2018 to 41 last year.

There has been a 25% or so drop in drug offences — both supply and possession for personal use — but there was a slight increase (4%) in importation cases.

While possession of firearm offences went down (-26%), discharge of firearms actually increased (up 10%).

The greatest increases in fraud offences was in the southern region (up 118%, compared to 88% nationally), also reflected in sexual offences (up 26%, compared to 12.5% nationally) and kidnapping offences (up 86%, compared to 38% nationally).