Three in five crimes last year involved suspects with previous offences, new figures show

In 2024, almost nine in 10 (87%) of detected crime incidents relating to trespassing and burglary were linked to suspected offenders with an existing detection.

Three in five (61%) crimes reported on the Garda Pulse system last year involved suspects with a history of offending, new statistics have shown.

The Central Statistics Office said the proportion of incidents involving re-offenders had increased in recent years, with crimes such as thefts, fraud, coercion or intimidation the most likely to involve a previous offender.

Theft and Robbery related incidents among the highest types of repeat re-offending in 2024https://t.co/zDamgWh9Uw#CSOIreland #Ireland #Crime #RecordedCrime #CrimeStatistics #CrimeStats pic.twitter.com/PzCxn7hE8n

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) November 25, 2025

“In 2024, almost nine in 10 (87%) of detected crime incidents relating to trespassing and burglary were linked to suspected offenders with an existing detection,” CSO statistician Felix Coleman said.

“Also, more than eight in 10 (84%) of theft-related incidents reported in 2024 were linked to a suspected offender with at least one previous detection.

“Looking at re-offences in 2024, 46% of theft-related crime incidents and one-third (33%) of drug-related incidents were detected to a suspected offender whose most recent offence was the same category.”

One in five cases (20%) where someone re-offended happened within a month, according to the figures. 

Furthermore, only 18% of incidents were linked to people who were most recently involved in an incident more than a year ago.

Crime incidents involving female offenders were more likely to be re-offending cases, with this being mainly due to higher rates of women involved in cases of dangerous or careless driving, or vehicle maintenance and duty of care.

Incidents involving men had higher re-offending rates in 14 of the 19 incident categories, listed by the CSO.

Mr Coleman added: “Looking in more detail at 2024, the rate of re-offending typically ranged between 70% to 90%. However, for vehicle-related incidents the rate was significantly lower.

“This was due to the exclusion of a proportion of vehicle-related incidents such as speeding offences that were managed solely by the Fixed Charge Processing System and not registered as a Pulse crime incident.”