Figures released by Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) have revealed that in the last 12 months, the number of murders in the country has increased by nearly 100% as domestic killings are thought to be partially behind the surge.
A total of 47 murders were reported within the 12-month period which ended in June of this year, up from just 24 murders in the year prior. It marks a surge since the COVID-19 pandemic when the number of killings significantly dropped, a report by the Irish Times newspaper states.
The number of murders appears to be partially driven by an increase in femicides as the organisation Women’s Aid noted that 12 women had been killed during the period measured by the CSO, a 50% increase from the previous 12-month period.
“It’s not something we can really pinpoint. We’ve been maintaining the femicide report since 1996 and the figures go up and down, there isn’t a marked trend. None of the recent cases have gone to trial yet so we can’t say what the context or cause was,” Women’s Aid chief executive Sarah Benson stated.
A similar trend has been seen in Spain, which has already this year seen 49 women killed by their partners or former partners, matching the entire number of domestic killings reported from the entire year in 2022. The current figures are the worst Spain has seen in the last thirteen years.
Ireland’s gang-related killings, meanwhile, have largely declined, with the last gang murder taking place in December of last year when drug dealer Cormac Berkely was fatally shot while in his car in west Dublin.
The reduction in gang killings is believed to be linked to operations by the Garda against those involved in a gangland feud which has led to dozens of gang members being placed behind bars, including several known hitmen.
While gang murders may have decreased, the illegal drug trade has seen a boom, with the CSO stating that “possession of drugs, either for sale, supply or personal use increased by a combined 19 per cent over the year.”
“This accounted for most of the increase of 971 or 6 per cent in recorded incidents of Controlled Drugs offences in the year to Q2 2023,” the CSO report states.
Ireland is not unique in seeing a rise in violent crime as several other countries within the European Union have seen similar trends in recent years.
France has the highest rate of homicides in Europe by total numbers, with the number of murders increasing by 90% from 2000 to 2020.
Professor Pierre Buigues from the University of Toulon noted that France has around 12.9 homicides per million inhabitants, far above other large European countries such as Italy, Spain, and Germany but also claimed that the rate may be even higher due to how statistics are recorded.
“Homicides are defined as intentionally killing a person. It should be noted that this homicide rate in France is underestimated, because ‘assaults leading to death’ are not counted as homicides in France, whereas this is the case for countries such as Germany and Spain,” Professor Buiges stated.
Violent crime in Spain has also seen an upward trend, with criminologist Samuel Vazquez stating last year, ”2022 will be the year with the highest violent crime ever seen by any generation alive, except during the civil war. We are going to live through the same levels of crime as those in France and Sweden.”
According to Vasquez, violence in Madrid has become particularly acute due to conflicts between gangs composed mostly of gangs from Latin America.
Germany likewise saw a rise in violent crime in 2022, with rapes, sexual offenses, and fatal assaults all rising by over 20% in 2022 according to statistics from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).
The German statistics also revealed that foreigners make up a disproportionate number of criminal suspects, accounting for 37.4% of the total number.
