Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 December 2023
81. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Taoiseach if he will consider requesting that the CSO conduct a regular victims of crime survey in order to capture data on crime which is not reflected in Garda statistics due to a lack of reporting. [54699/23]
View answerThe victims of crime survey that the Deputy refers to is the Crime and Victimisation survey that is carried out periodically by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). This is a household survey that provides an alternative, but complementary, measure of crime to crime incidents recorded by An Garda Síochána. The survey gathers information on the levels of personal and household crime in the population and the attitudes and opinions of individuals to crime and to the Irish justice system.
Respondents aged 18 years and over in this survey are asked to consider the period of 12 months prior to interview and to rate their response to a series of questions relating to the impact that crime has on their lives and their opinions on how effectively crime is dealt with in Ireland.
Respondents are then asked about their own personal experiences and the experiences of their household in terms of whether they had been the victim of different types of crime such as theft, assault or burglary in the 12 months prior to interview. Respondents who had experienced crime were asked additional questions, such as whether they had reported the crime to An Garda Síochána, reasons for not reporting if they didn't report, whether they felt the crime had been motivated by discrimination, and other contextual details relating to the crime.
Finally, farming households were asked a short set of additional questions relating to specific types of crime which target farms such as trespassing on farm lands and thefts of farming machinery and livestock in the 12 months prior to interview.
The survey was first undertaken in 1998 and was repeated in 2003, 2006, 2010, 2015 and 2019.
The CSO plans on repeating the survey again in 2025 and will be engaging with stakeholders in 2024 to discuss questionnaire content and the future frequency of the survey, along with consequent resourcing requirements.
The following table provides a summary of some of the key results from the most recent instance of the survey (2019).
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Crime and Victimisation Survey 2019 - key results |
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Share of victims of personal crime who said they reported the crime to An Garda Síochána |
39% |
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Share of victims of personal crime who felt that the crime took place because of personal characteristics (e.g., age, gender, race) |
7% |
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Share of persons who said they felt 'very safe' or 'fairly safe' walking in their local area by night |
75% |
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Share of persons who felt An Garda Síochána were “very effective” or “quite effective” at tackling crime in their local area. |
68% |
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Share of households who suffered a burglary or vandalism to their property |
4% |
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Share of farming households who said their farm had been a victim of crime, mostly trespassing on farm land |
21% |
