Dan Neville
Ceist:298 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of indictable crimes in 1975, 2001 and 2002. [3830/03]
Written Answers. - Crime Levels.
The annual reports of An Garda Síochána show that 48,387 indictable offences were recorded in 1975. A total of 86,633 headline offences were recorded in 2001, the last year for which statistics are available.
The Deputy will be aware that crime statistics since the year 2000 are not directly comparable with those of previous years. The annual report of the Garda Síochána in the year 2000 replaced the system of recording "indictable" and "non-indictable" offences with the new classifications of "headline" and "non-headline" offences. Although headline crime reflects to a major degree what in the past was defined as indictable crime, the two categories are not identical.