Theft, burglary show high rates of re-offending
A new set of figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that 61% of crime incidents detected by gardaí in 2024 involved suspected offenders who had a link to at least one previous crime incident.
The figures, which use the gardaí’s PULSE system, show that 20% of crimes reported last year involved suspected offenders who had been linked to another crime less than a month earlier.
The proportion of detected PULSE incidents linked to re-offending showed what the CSO described as a “marginal” increase from 57% in 2019.
Burglary
In 2024, almost nine in ten (87%) of detected crime incidents relating to trespassing and burglary were linked to suspected offenders with an existing detection in any crime category.
More than eight in ten (84%) of theft-related incidents last year were linked to a suspected offender with at least one previous detection.
The CSO figures also showed that 46% of thefts and one-third of drug-related incidents were detected to a suspected offender whose most recent offence was in the same category.
‘More timely estimates’
CSO statistician Felix Coleman said that the figures provided a new method of estimating re-offending rates.
“This method of calculating re-offending helps to produce more timely estimates covering 2024 and also increases the coverage of the population of suspected offenders and re-offending incidents,” he added.
The CSO pointed out that the figures did not include non-PULSE fixed-charge processing notices (FCPNs) such as speeding or parking tickets where the fine was paid correctly without escalation.
As a result, the figures are not directly comparable with the CSO’s recorded-crime statistics.