Robbery, burglary and theft drop sharply in context of COVID-19 restrictions
The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD, has noted today’s publication of Recorded Crime Statistics by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for Q2 2020. As might be expected in the context of COVID-19 restrictions which have been in place since mid-March, the statistics show welcome decreases across many crime categories compared to the same period in 2019.
Burglary and related offences saw a decrease of 52.8% compared to Q2 2019 while the decrease over the twelve months to end June 2020 compared to the previous twelve month period was 13.1%. Likewise theft and related offences were down by 38.7% compared to Q2 2019 and by 11.3% in the twelve months to end June. Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences decreased by 29.9% compared to Q2 2019 and by 9.8% compared to the previous twelve month period.
Reflecting on the data, Minister McEntee said:
The release today reflects the period of the ongoing situation regarding Covid-19, when Government restrictions were in place throughout Ireland, which has no doubt had an impact on crime figures for that period. The figures show that there has been a welcome decrease in many categories of crime during that period. It must similarly be noted that the quick and proactive approach of An Garda Síochána, including public awareness initiatives and operations, as well as the additional deployment of trainee Garda members in late March, has had a positive impact and deterred certain crimes while increasing capacity for reporting of others.
Other findings in the latest CSO figures include:
Drugs Offences
Recorded offences in relation to drugs increased in a number of categories. Controlled drug offences rose by 10.5% compared to Q2 2019 and by 13% in the twelve month period to end June, with an increase both in possession for simple possession and drugs for sale or supply contributing the highest volume to the increase.
Sexual Offences
The Minister welcomed the decrease in recorded sexual offences which fell by 20.5% compared to Q2 2019 and by 11.1% in the twelve month period to end June.
Speaking in relation to Sexual Offences, Minister McEntee said:
The decrease of sexual offences and sexual assaults in the second quarter of 2020 is encouraging, and I am pleased with any reduction of this despicable crime. The support of victims is critical in these situations, and last month I published the O’Malley Review regarding protections for vulnerable witnesses.
The review is a thorough and expert examination of the entire criminal justice process around sexual offences. I am convinced that the reforms identified have the potential to transform the manner in which sexual crime is dealt with in Ireland and I have tasked my officials with development of a comprehensive implementation plan - after engaging with relevant stakeholders. I intend to bring this plan to Government before the end of October
Notes for Editors:
The full statistics can be accessed at: www.cso.ie
Deferral of the official crime statistic publication by the CSO.
In early 2018, the CSO announced its decision to resume publication of recorded crime statistics in the first six months of 2018. However, as PULSE data – on which the CSO is wholly dependent - is subject to a number of separate ongoing quality reviews and concerns that extended beyond just homicide data, the CSO made the decision that recorded crime statistics will be published in a new category entitled: “Under Reservation”.
“Under Reservation”
According to the CSO, the classification of “Under Reservation” is in keeping with other jurisdictions and other statistical domains. This indicates that, while the statistics have been determined to be of sufficient quality to allow publication, ongoing issues mean that the quality does not yet meet the higher standard required of official statistics by the CSO.
Criteria for lifting the categorisation
The CSO is engaging with An Garda Síochána to set out the criteria for the lifting of the reservation. These criteria are not confined to homicide data but will address quality concerns across a broader range of issues. They will address issues such as data governance, training, crime data recording procedures and the auditing and monitoring of data quality.
CSO Review Quality of Recorded Crime Statistics
On 11 December 2018, the CSO published a third review of the quality of Recorded Crime statistics. The latest review is based on data recorded on the PULSE database in respect of crimes reported to An Garda Síochána (AGS) in 2017.
The review found considerable development in the quality of Recorded Crime statistics since the publication of the last CSO quality review in 2016, including:
- A marked reduction in the non-recording of reported crime incidents on PULSE
- A reduction in misclassification errors
- Improvement made in criminal incidents being recorded in a timely manner on PULSE
- Improvement made in the recording of criminal incident records subsequently marked invalid
The scope of this review expanded on previous CSO reviews to include data quality concerns arising from the examination of homicide data records during 2017 such as the correct application of crime counting principles. The CSO has also undertaken, for the first time, to assess the quality of statistics relating to crimes with a discriminatory motive and domestic abuse. The CSO concludes that further work is needed to improve the accuracy of recording in these areas, and work is underway in that regard.