The most common crimes experienced by victims in 2023 were criminal damage, burglary, assault and online fraud, according to the Garda Public Attitudes Survey.
The survey, undertaken by Ipsos B&A, included 7,682 people, aged 18 years and over, and 835 young people (aged 16 and 17). It shows people’s perception of An Garda Síochána’s work in their community, which remains positive.
The vast majority of young people trust gardaí (90%), while 87% say they would be treated with respect by gardaí.
Most adults (73%) are satisfied with the service provided by An Garda Síochána, and over 90% find gardaí friendly or helpful.
Crimes
The victimisation rate for 2023 is 5.9% – an increase of 0.5% on the 2022 survey. Of the 7,682 respondents in the 2023 study, 75% had reported their most recent crime to gardaí.
For the second consecutive year, 53% were satisfied with how their case was handled. Just under half (47%) of those that reported their most recent crime felt that the information received from gardaí was ‘about right’.
Most respondents (53%) reported having “no fears” or “very few fears” about crime. Over half of people surveyed stated that fear of crime had little or no impact on their quality of life.
A total of 42% of respondents do not worry about becoming a victim of crime. However, they were slightly more likely to worry about someone they live with becoming a victim of crime (44%).
Garda
The public’s views about gardaí and the garda organisation across demographic categories generally remained positive in 2023.
The survey indicates that those aged 65 years and older, and non-Irish nationals hold the most positive views of the organisation.
Satisfaction with garda service to local communities remained high in 2023, at 73% percent, though this is a 2% decrease from 2022.
Sexual offences continued to be the greatest issue among the majority of respondents (91%) when asked to consider what should be the top policing priority for An Garda Síochána. This was the case regardless of gender, age or nationality.
Domestic abuse was also rated as a high policing priority by 90% of respondents, second only to sexual offences.
Human trafficking, assaults, drug offences and illegal weapons all featured significantly across all demographics in terms of priorities for An Garda Síochána.