Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 5 Jul 2001

Vol. 540 No. 3

Written Answers. - Crime Levels.

Richard Bruton

Question:

275 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he has carried out an analysis comparing the level of crime reported in the CSO's survey of crime with the Garda figures for reported crime in the same year; and if he will estimate the level of unreported crime from this comparison by type of offence; and if he has requested that the CSO would carry out a repeat survey of this nature to establish an improved understanding of the crime trends. [20507/01]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

The Central Statistics Office survey to which the Deputy refers was, in terms of scale, the first nationwide survey of its kind to be carried out in this jurisdiction and it was conducted with both rigour and comprehensiveness.

I must point out, however, that the CSO itself drew attention to the fact that "the survey results are not directly comparable with crime statistics published in the Garda Síochána annual report, as there are fundamental differences in sources, definitions and classification methodology". It is also worth noting that the CSO has highlighted that the survey data are subject to sampling variation and that some of the results should be interpreted with extreme caution. Moreover, neither the crime categories nor the time frame of the survey permit direct comparison with the Garda statistics. In simple terms, therefore, we are not comparing like with like, and this is always crucial when contrasting any two data sets if robust conclusions are to be drawn.

The main benefit of surveys such as that by the CSO is to identify trends which may emerge over time. Unfortunately, there is little recent comparable work. There is no evidence to suggest that the level of under-reporting of crime has altered in recent years.

My Department and the national crime council are considering the results of the CSO survey, including the possibility of commissioning further victimisation surveys.