Probation-order reoffending rate goes up
Over one-quarter (27%) of offenders who received a probation order in 2020 re-offended within a year, CSO data shows.
This is a rise of two percentage points when compared with the equivalent rate for 2019 (25%).
Over one-third (37%) of adult males aged under 25 who received probation orders in 2020 re-offended within a year of receiving probation.
In comparison, one-quarter (25%) of young adult females re-offended during the same period.
Assault
There were increases between 2019 and 2020 in the re-offending rate of people serving probation for offences related to:
- Assault (five percentage points),
- Controlled drug (four points), and
- Road and traffic (four points) related offences.
Regionally, the highest level of re-offending (31%) involved probationers from Cork and Kerry.
In the Dublin region, where the highest number of probationers lived (1,058 of 3,478), 27% of probationers re-offended within a year.
The highest number of probation orders were issued in 2020 to people who committed offences related to controlled drug offences (605 of 3,478).
Just over one-fifth (23%) of these people were convicted of a re-offence within a year of receiving their probation.
Just under two-thirds (65%) of the re-offending by people who received a probation order in 2020 took place in just three of the 16 offence categories:
- Public order (28%),
- Controlled drug (21%), and
- Theft (16%).
During a longer period (three years) after receiving a probation order in 2018, almost half (45%) of people committed at least one offence for which they received a conviction.
This was two percentage points down on 2017 (47%) and six percentage points less than 2008 levels, when the three-year re-offending rate was more than half (55%).
Crime statistician Felix Coleman said that Probation Service data indicated that there were, on average, significantly fewer probation orders (-35%) issued in 2020 when compared with studies from previous years, due to pandemic measures.
Increase in re-offending
Overall, probation re-offending estimates indicated a slight increase in re-offending by probationers between those that received a probation order between 2019 and 2020, although the one-year re-offending rate for 2020 (27%) was the second-lowest re-offending rate measured since 2008, when the first estimates of probation re-offending were calculated.
The year-on-year increase in re-offending between 2019 and 2020 was mostly due to a rise in the re-offending of people who received probation for offences relating to controlled drug (23%) or road traffic (22%) related offences.