THREE IN FIVE crimes detected by gardaí last year involved suspects with a prior criminal history, according to new statistics published today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

A new CSO report shows that 61% of detected crime incidents were linked to offenders with at least one previous detection, up from 57% in 2019.

In contrast, 39% of detected crimes last year were committed by first-time offenders.

Re-offending was highest among burglary and trespassing cases, where 87% of detected incidents involved 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

Theft-related incidents showed similar trends, with 84% linked to someone with prior detections.

Nearly half of theft, fraud, robbery and deception offences (46%) were committed by suspects whose previous offence was in the same category. One-third of drug offences showed the same pattern.

One in five detected crimes in 2024 involved someone who had been linked to another incident less than a month earlier.

Only 18% were linked to offenders whose most recent prior incident occurred over a year earlier.

Dublin’s North Central division recorded the highest level of re-offending at 78%, while Tipperary had the lowest at 44%.

Re-offending rates were much lower for offences like dangerous driving (29%) and vehicle maintenance (37%), as many traffic incidents handled through fixed-charge fines do not appear on garda systems and were excluded from the analysis.