Ireland has one of lowest rates of assault-related death in EU, new figures show

But Garda fears of rise in general assaults causing harm before the impact of Covid

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris linked a plateau in the rise in crimes against the person to 'decreased public mobility and the closure of pubs' during the Covid pandemic. 

Ireland has one of the lowest rates of assault-related death within the EU, although gardaí have expressed concern that the overall incidence of assaults causing harm was on the rise again before the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

New figures published by the European Commission show Ireland had the second-lowest rate of deaths due to assaults in 2017 — the latest year for which provisional comparative data is available as many deaths can only be classified following the conclusion of inquests and criminal trials which can take several years to complete.

Ireland recorded a fatal assault rate of 0.36 per 100,000 inhabitants when 19 deaths were classified as arising from violent assaults — almost half the EU average rate of 0.7 fatal assaults per 100,000.

Only Luxembourg had a lower rate of deaths due to assault than Ireland with 0.2 deaths per 100,000.

The highest rates in the EU were found in the three Baltic states with Latvia recording 3.8 deaths per 100,000 — more than 10 times the Irish rate — ahead of Lithuania (2.8) and Estonia (2.3 per 100,000.) Other countries with high rates of fatal assaults include Malta, Romania, Bulgaria and Belgium.

The 2017 figure is the lowest fatal assault rate in Ireland in recent years and has more than halved since 2012 when the number of people killed as a result of an assault totalled 41.

The European Commission said the assault-related death rate had been on a steady decline across the EU over most of the past decade.

The EU average across the 27 member states has fallen from 0.9 in 2011 to 0.7 deaths per 100,000 population in 2017.

The latest figure equates to around 3,125 annual deaths across the EU as a result of a fatal assault  —
down by around 900 since the start of the decade.

As in most EU countries, the majority of victims of fatal assaults in Ireland are men with males accounting for 16 of the 19 deaths in the Republic in 2017.

In his latest monthly report to the Policing Authority, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said the general trend in crimes against the person has plateaued in 2020 following a gradual rise in the past three years including a 6% increase in assaults in 2019.

In fact, the number of crimes against the person fell by 17% in April-July 2020 compared to the corresponding period last year.

“There has been an overall reduction during Covid-19 which is likely to be linked to decreased public mobility and closure of licensed establishments,” Mr Harris said.

Figures published by the CSO show the number of assaults causing harm has continuously increased every year since 2013 when the figure stood at 3,071 to 4,985 last year.

According to the Garda Analysis Service, the vast majority of assaults are carried out by males aged between 18 and 39 against male victims within the same age group with many occurring between 8pm and 5am at weekends.

Gardaí claim the level of assaults is typically associated with “the vibrancy of the night-time economy”.