The ability of An Garda Síochána to detect most categories of serious crime has decreased in the last year.
A crime is considered to have been detected when gardaí have identified at least one person responsible for committing the offence and the suspected offender has been issued a charge or summons, a formal or informal caution, or a fixed payment notice.
The crime detection rate is the number of detected incidents divided by the number of recorded incidents.
New figures released by the CSO show gardaí detected one in three thefts and assaults, one in four robberies, and one in five burglaries.
The figures also show that while 75% of homicide offences are solved, 12% of sexual offences reported in 2021 have been detected, an increase of 2% on the previous year.
The detection rate for fraud offences was down seven percentage points from 13%, meaning just 6% of the crimes reported in 2021 have been detected.
The homicide detection rate was also down 6% while the ability of gardaí to solve kidnapping and related offences dropped 17 percentage points.
Men have been found to be responsible for the vast majority of the crimes, 99% of the cases of rape and sexual assault, 80% of assaults and 66% of all thefts.
While the detection rate for all drugs offences was 82%, the rate of detection for drugs importation is 48% which means no one was held accountable for more than half of all drug trafficking and shipment offences.
The detection of attempted murder, harassment and related offences was 33%, down 5% from 2020.
The highest detection rate was for dangerous and negligent acts at 87%
Detection rates dropped in 12 of the 15 serious crime categories.
The figures also show that detection rates increase with time.
For example, sex offences reported in 2020 had a detection rate of 10% in 2021, but this had doubled to 20% in 2022.
In addition, nearly a quarter of all fraud offences reported in 2020 have now been detected.
The figures are published under reservation which means the CSO does not have full confidence in the reliability of the garda PULSE statistics on which they are based.
