REPORTS OF ROBBERIES and sexual offences have increased significantly in the past 12 months, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office.

There’s been an increase in the number of reported crimes across most groups for the year from October 2017 to September 2018. The greatest increases were in robberies which were up by 22.7% and sexual offences which increased by 11.7%.

The number of recorded incidents of damage to property and the environment fell by 7.4% in the period. There has been a sustained drop in incidents of burglary since 2014. Thefts have dropped in four of the five years since 2014.

The number of reported crimes for the year ending in September 2018 are:

• Homicide offences: 71
• Sexual offences: 3,086
• Kidnapping and related offences: 117
• Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences: 2,457
• Theft and related offences: 66,798
• Fraud, deception and related offences: 5,727
• Controlled drug offences: 17,958

Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan said that recorded incidents of “sexual assault, particularly rape” are a key area for the government and the Gardaí. He also encouraged people to continue to report incidents of fraud, which had increased by 9%.

Flanagan emphasised that there was a 19.3% decrease in the total number of homicide offences committed to the end of the third quarter of 2018 when compared to the same period in 2017, and highlighted the work of An Garda Síochána in tackling crimes relating to gangland feuds.

“An Garda Síochána continue to make significant progress in tackling organised crime, particularly in Dublin’s North Inner-City through Operation Hybrid.

Gardaí have had a number of successes with detections in relation to organised crime cases and have prevented over 50 murders since Operation Hybrid commenced.

Recorded Crime Q3 2018 is the fourth quarterly release of crime statistics under the Statistics Under Reservation methodology. This category was introduced to highlight concerns regarding how crimes were catalogued on An Garda Síochána’s Pulse database, and to inform users that statistical revisions can be expected as the problem is rectified.

Commenting on the latest Recorded Crime statistics, Olive Loughnane, Statistician said:

“The CSO is committed to assisting AGS in improving data quality wherever possible, and have proposed a data quality improvement plan to AGS.”