The development of crime incident and offences classifications in the Irish criminal justice system

• In Event: Advances in Quantitative Methods Panel 3: Innovations in Criminal Justice Metrics and Administrative Data

Abstract

In Ireland, national estimates of crime are published using the concept of the crime incident. To be able to classify and publish the levels of crime incidents by offence types, Ireland uses crime counting rules to identify a “primary offence” in which to classify and publish incident levels. The disadvantage of using the primary offence method is that it can cause a loss in measurement of the volumes of crimes/offences that take place within each incident. This presentation will outline:
• How the national statistics office is developing an alternative statistical classification designed to describe and aggregate crime incidents independently.
• The development of new statistical products measuring crime trends using both the concept of the crime incidents and offences that relate to each incident.
• The challenges in applying crime incidents classifications to the measuring of the relatively new modes of offending in cybercrime.

James Dalton and Felix Coleman, Crime Statistics Division, Central Statistics Office, Ireland

Authors

• Felix Coleman, Central Statistics Office, Ireland

• James Dalton, Central Statistics Office, Ireland