The latest garda crime figures show an increase in most serious and violent crime in the past year, but an overall reduction when compared to pre-pandemic crime figures.
Provisional figures show an increase in murder, assault, theft, burglary and public order offences.
Sex offences including rape also increased. Gardaí say this does not necessarily mean more sex offences are being committed, but could be due to other factors including the fact that victims are now more likely to report these crimes.
There has also been a significant increase in attacks on gardaí, with 18 assaults on gardaí recorded for January of this year.
Sex Offences
The provisional garda crime figures for 2022 show that sexual offences have been increasing since early 2015 and although they plateaued in 2020, the upward trend resumed in 2021.
Last year sexual offences overall increased by 8% when compared to 2019 and 4% in 2021.
Rape offences increased 13% on 2019 and 2% from 2021. Sexual assault offences rose 8% on 2019 and 5% on 2021.
Offences related to child sexual abuse material was up 6% on 2019, and 3% on 2021.
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Gardaí say the increase in these figures may relate to a change in reporting behaviour whereby victims are increasingly likely to report sexual crime.
They say improvements in data quality and recording may also be a contributing factor to the upward trend in both recorded sexual offences and crimes against the person.
They also say it therefore cannot be concluded that the increase in sexual offences in recent years is solely due to an increased level of incidents occurring.
Domestic Abuse
There has been a continued increase in domestic abuse incidents, which was up 8%.
Gardaí responded to almost 54,000 domestic abuse Incidents last year compared to just under 50,000 incidents in 2021 and just over 44,500 in 2020.
Murder/Manslaughter, Violent Crime
The number of murder and manslaughter offences for last year was 44, an increase of 16% when compared to the figure of 38 in 2019, and a 76% increase when compared to the 25 who died violently the year before in 2021.
Attempted murder in 2022 was down by almost a third on 2021, but there were increases in human trafficking (up 110% on 2019 and 31% on 2021), harassment and stalking (up 18% on 2019 and 5% on 2021), assaults causing harm (up 16% on 2019 and 20% on 2021), and minor assaults, which were up 19% on 2021.
Organised Crime and Drugs
The garda figures show a downward trend in offences associated with organised crime. Shootings were down 4% on last year, and 25% on 2019. There were also reductions in possession of firearms and recorded cases of possession and supply of drugs.
Overall drugs offences were down 14% and offensive weapons offences dropped 2% in 2022.
There were six gang-related murders last year compared to eight in 2019.
The Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau seized €57m worth of drugs last year, which along with the €32m discovered by local and divisional units brings the total figure to €89m worth of drugs.
The bureau also seized €3.75 million in cash and nine firearms.
Drugs Intimidation
Intimidation and demands for payment from drug dealers and drugs gangs continues to increase. Demanding payment of debt increased 45% last year, and is up 104% when compared to the 2019 figure.
Gardaí say the Drugs Related Intimidation Reporting Programme has been set up to deal with this, and that garda inspectors are appointed in every Garda division to respond "in the utmost confidential and secure fashion".
Last month three men were sentenced for their roles in a drugs-related attack during which boiling water was poured over a woman. Twenty-nine-year-old Paul Clarke from Clonard Road in Crumlin was jailed for four years and three months, 38-year-old Craig Kelly from Dowland Road in Walkinstown was sentenced to five months in prison while nineteen-year-old Josh Conlon from Meath Place was given a three-year suspended sentence.
Fraud
Overall fraud offences dropped 32% in the last year. The reduction was driven largely by the reduction in post-pandemic online fraud.
'Account Takeover’ fraud was down 27%, ‘Card Not Present’ fraud was down 59%, while phishing/vishing/smishing frauds were down 48%.
However there have been increases in other types of fraud. Accommodation Fraud was up 28% and Bogus Tradesman Fraud was up 8%.
Property Crime
Property crime had been trending downwards since the end of 2015. This trend flattened in 2019 but took a further downward turn in 2020. However, this increased last year by 36% compared to 2021, but generally remained down compared to 2019.
Burglary in particular has been trending downwards with overall reported cases of burglary last year 45% lower than pre-pandemic levels. Residential burglary was up 7% compared to 2021. Gardaí say residential burglary was down 24% in the fourth quarter of 2022.
This is a new trend and contrary to the international trend which sees residential burglaries spike during longer dark evenings of winter and spring months.
Gardaí say the introduction of Operation Thor to target burglary has been a factor in this reduction.
Residential burglary was down 45% on 2019, but up 7% on 2021
Blackmail and Extortion offences were up 258% on 2019, and 35% on 2021.
Road Traffic
There was a significant increase in fatal road crashes last year which increased by 20%, continuing an upward trend since 2019.
Over 50,000 road traffic collisions were reported to gardaí last year, and while cases of serious injury reduced slightly last year (by 3%), crashes involving material damage and non-serious injury both increased by 24% and 22% respectively.
Drunken driving is also on the increase, up by 4% last year. Over 7,750 drivers were arrested during 2022 for driving while intoxicated offences.
Car theft also significantly increased last year, up 52% on 2021 and 19% on 2019.
Gardaí say a large portion of this increase is related to thefts of second-hand imported cars as well as the theft of electric scooters. Thefts from cars was also up by 15%.
There was no increase in the theft of bicycles last year, plateauing a downward trend of 11% in bike theft in 2019.
Assaults on gardaí
Assaults on or obstruction of gardaí continued to increase last year, up 2% on the previous year, and a 27% increase on the figure for 2019.
18 gardaí were injured on duty in January of this year, an increase of ten on the month before.
