Pádraig MacLochlainn
Question:531. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Justice and Equality his views on the recent report by the Central Statistics Office on criminal re-offending in Ireland. [52822/12]
View answerTuesday, 27 November 2012
Questions (531)
Written answers
As I said when welcoming its publication, this is the first time there has been such an assessment of the impact and effectiveness of non-custodial measures on rates of re-offending. The results are interesting with the study showing that almost 63% of offenders who were given an alternative sanction by the Courts in 2007 had not re-offended after two years.
This study has established reliable recidivism data on offenders under probation supervision and on community service orders and considers variations in recidivism as they relate to the type of original order, gender and age of offenders, category of offence and subsequent offence. Its findings show that the recidivism or re-offending rate was 37.2% for the particular cohort of offenders who were under probation supervision in the two years after their supervision ended.
I believe the value of the work that has been done to produce this report is that it provides a clearer overview of community sanctions outcomes which will better inform the work of the Probation Service in helping to make our communities safer. I look forward to receiving such evidence-based material on an annual basis.