THE LATEST FIGURES on crime released by the Central Statistics Office reveal that compared to this time last year, reported incidents of crime are down.

The figures for the second quarter of 2011 show that in all 15 classifications of offences, there has been a drop in incidents recorded.

Homicides dropped by 39.1 per cent, from 23  in the second quarter of 2010 to 14 for the same period this year, while threats of murder, assault, harassments and related offences are down 15 per cent. Included in the homicides group are murder, manslaughter, infanticide, and dangerous driving leading to death.

The CSO notes that the decrease in offences of dangerous driving leading to death may be due to the fact that investigations of collisions for this period have not been completed.

The biggest drop is in kidnapping and related offences. They’re down from 44 to 17, a decrease of 61.4 per cent. Controlled drug offences are down 19.1 per cent, public order offences are down 17.7 per cent, and there’s been a drop of 14.2 per cent in robbery, extortion and hijacking offences.

Sexual offences are down 37.6 per cent, from 667 to 416. It’s noted that the rise in recorded sexual offences in 2010 was due to a review of all cases, which resulted in them being reclassified, even if they happened in the past.

The Justice Minister Alan Shatter has welcomed the decreases, and said that “while the figures show that the Garda strategies in place to prevent and combat crime are working, both the Garda Commissioner and I are determined that that will not lead to any complacency on our part”.

With regard to the number of sexual offences reported, the minister said the reduction is encouraging, but expressed concern that a significant number of cases reported to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre are still not being reported to Gardaí. He said that he will undertake consultations on this matter in September.

Figures released yesterday revealed that just over 30 per cent of those who contacted the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre reported incidents to the Gardaí.

When comparing year-on-year CSO figures, as opposed to quarter on quarter, there were increases in robbery, extortion and hijacking offences (8 per cent), theft and related offences (0.1 per cent) and fraud, deception and related offences (2.8 per cent).

Have a look at a more detailed breakdown of the figures>