Gardaí identified perpetrators in a fifth of 2021′s reported sexual offences, figures show

Gardaí identified perpetrators in nearly a fifth of sexual offences reported in 2021 by September 2023, according to a new report by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

On Monday, the CSO published its recorded crime detection data for 2022. A crime is described as being detected when gardaí have identified at least one person responsible for committing the offence and that person has been issued a charge or summons, a formal or informal caution, or a fixed payment notice.

The detection rate for sexual offences reported in 2021 increased from 12 per cent to 19 per cent over the year to September 2023. Meanwhile, the initial detection rate for those offences reported in 2022 currently stands at 9 per cent.

The detection rate for homicide and related offences reported in 2021 has increased from 76 per cent to 87 per cent over the year driven mainly by an increase in the detection rate for murder, manslaughter and infanticide. The initial detection rate for these offences reported in 2022 currently stands at 74 per cent.

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With regard to geographical breakdown of offences, there were higher crime rates for most crimes in the Dublin region.

The rate for theft and related offences for the Dublin Metropolitan region at 2,388 incidents per 100,000 people was nearly twice the State average and nearly four times as much as the northwestern region.

In the Dublin metropolitan region, there were 82 sexual offences reported per 100,000 people, with the next highest rate being in the northwestern region where there were 72 incidents per 100,000 people.

The rate for the Dublin metropolitan region for robbery, extortion and hijacking offences was 82 instances per 100,000 people which was over three times the level of many of the other regions.

However, there were some exceptions, with the rate for homicide and related offences being the highest for the eastern region at two incidents per 100,000 people compared with a rate of one incident per 100,000 people for the Dublin metropolitan region.

Furthermore, the rates for dangerous or negligent acts was highest for the northwestern region at 192 incidents per 100,000 people. This compared with a rate of 144 incidents per 100,000 people for the Dublin metropolitan region, which was the lowest of all the regions.

In general, while the recorded crime rate was highest in the Dublin Metropolitan Region for 2022, the rate of crime detection was lower for most offence groups for this region.

The rate for detection of theft and related offences for the Dublin Metropolitan region at 26 per cent was the lowest among all regions with the highest being in the Southern region at 39 per cent.

The two exceptions to this is kidnapping and related offences and weapons and explosives offences, which had 36 per cent and 77 per cent detection rates respectively in the Dublin region.