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Background Information on Northern Ireland Society - Law and Order

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Text:Martin Melaugh ...Research:FionnualaMcKenna

Law and Order

This section deals specifically with the issue of Law and Orderfrom a non-political perspective. For information relating tolaw and order and the political situation in Northern Ireland,the reader may wish to consult the section onSecurity.

General issues of law and order are upheld by the police forcein Northern Ireland, the Royal Ulster Constabulary. This forcecame into existence in 1922, and its membership today stands at8,489 plus a further 4,967 full and part-time reserves, bringingthis to a grand total of 13,486. In proportionate terms this isconsiderably higher than anywhere else in the UK. It representsa ratio of one police officer per 140 civilians, as opposed to 1:434in England, 1:359 in Scotland and 1:459 in Wales.
On the whole, the overall level of crime in Northern Ireland issignificantly lower than that in England, Scotland or Wales, andin 1995, notifiable offences (per 100,000 population) in NorthernIreland were less than half of that recorded in England and Wales.There were however three categories in which Northern Irelandhad a higher rate of offenders than any of the other areas. Thesecategories are sexual offences, fraud and forgery and 'other'offences. Northern Ireland also has a high proportion of burglaries(although proportionately fewer than England and Wales) and in1995, these accounted for almost three quarters of all recordedcrime in Northern Ireland.
The number of drugs related offences in Northern Ireland has beenincreasing steadily and rapidly over the past number of years,with the number of arrests for drugs charges having more thantripled in the five years between 1990 and 1995. Having said thishowever, these figures are still dramatically lower than the figuresfor any other part of the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland.
In terms of offences cleared up, Northern Ireland has a higherpercentage of crimes solved or cleared up than the rest of theUK. In 1995, the clear-up rate for crime in Northern Ireland was36 per cent, while England and Wales had an average clear-up rateof only 26 per cent.
The numbers of young offenders in Northern Ireland has decreaseddramatically over the past ten or so years. The overall figurefor offences caused by juveniles in 1985 was 1,523 but by 1994,this figure had fallen to 879. The age group which representsthe greatest number of overall offenders, is the 21-29 age bracket,and for every age bracket there are consistently more male offendersthan female.

Sources:
The following tables provide further details regarding employmentand unemployment in Northern Ireland. Much of this material hasbeen taken from theNorthern Ireland Annual Abstract of Statistics(1996),Regional Trends (1996),Northern Ireland Statistics andResearch Agengy: Focus on Northern Ireland (1997), and theIrish Almanacand Yearbook of Facts (1997).

Notifiable Offences Recorded and Cleared by the Police in NorthernIreland, 1995-1996

Notifiable Offences Recorded and Cleared by the Police in Northern Ireland,England and Wales: A comparison by Offence Group, 1981 and 1994

Drugs Offences and Arrests, 1990-1995

Seizures of Controlled Drugs, 1994: A comparison with England,Scotland and Wales

Persons found Guilty, Cautioned or Dealt with by compounding fordrug offences: A comparison with England, Scotland and Wales, 1994

Police Manpower, 1994-1995: A comparison with England, Scotlandand Wales

Young Offenders: Juveniles Found Guilty by Offence Group and Disposal, 1985-1994

Persons found guilty of Indictable Offences in Northern Ireland,1994

Persons Sentenced for Indictable Offences: by Disposal, 1995

Notifiable Offences Known and Cleared by the Police in Northern Ireland, 1995 and 1996

	1996		1995
	Total offences recorded	Total offences cleared	Total offences recorded	Total offences cleared
Offences against the person	5,640	3,572	5,150	3,446
Sexual Offences	1,745	1,484	1,679	1,369
Burglaries	16,114	2,908	16,457	3,194
Robberies	1,725	281	1,539	298
Thefts	32,772	9,455	33,472	10,526
Frauds and Forgeries	4,081	2,617	4,884	3,060
Criminal Damage	4,847	1,332	3,772	1,232
Offences against the state	400	322	339	305
Other Notifiable Offences	1,225	1,132	1,516	1,408
Grand Totals	68,549	23,103	68,808	24,838

(Source: Chief Constable's Annual Report, 1996)

Notifiable Offences Recorded by the Police and Cleared Up:Northern Ireland, England and Wales

	Offences Recorded (per 100,000 population)				Offences Cleared-Up (%)
	Northern Ireland		England and Wales		Northern Ireland	England and Wales
	1985	1995	1985	1995	1995	1995
Violence against the Person	183	312	245	412	67	77
Sexual Offences	42	102	43	59	82	76
Burglary	1,301	998	1,742	2,401	19	21
Robbery	116	93	55	132	19	23
Theft and handling stolen goods	1,893	2,030	3,786	4,750	31	23
Fraud and Forgery	237	296	271	258	63	50
Criminal damage	205	229	1,083	1,355	33	19
Other offences	68	112	34	98	92	96
Total Offences	4,046	4,173	7,259	9,465	36	26

(Source: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency,Focus on Northern Ireland, 1997)

Please note: Figures for Scotland are not comparable due to thefact that the legal system there differs from the rest of theUK.

Drugs Offences and Arrests in Northern Ireland, 1990-1995

	Offences	Arrests	Persons Proceeded Against
1990	-	429	122
1991	287	453	162
1992	619	610	294
1993	811	976	454
1994	1,286	1,196	538
1995	1,426	1,558	739

(Source: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency,Focus on Northern Ireland, 1997)

Seizures of controlled Drugs, 1994:A comparison withEngland, Scotland and Wales(Rates per 100,000 population)

	Class A Drugs					Class B Drugs
	Heroin	Cocaine	LSD	MDMA (Ecstasy)	All class A drugs	Cannabis	Amphet- amines	All class B drugs
England	3,838	2,872	1,769	2,932	11,833	73,227	10,853	80,276
Wales	148	37	181	109	578	4,944	749	5,386
Scotland	487	79	258	341	1,208	9,503	1,222	10,302
Northern Ireland	5	4	76	189	245	792	130	868

(Source: Office for National Statistics, Regional Trends,1997, p.144)

Persons found guilty, cautioned or dealt with by compoundingfor drug offences: by type of drug, 1994. A comparison of NorthernIreland, England, Scotland and Wales.
(Rates per 100,000 population)

	Class A Drugs				Class B Drugs
	Heroin	Cocaine	LSD	MDMA (Ecstasy)	Cannabis	Ampheta -mines	All Drugs
Northern Ireland	-	-	-	-	2	-	3
England	6	3	3	4	132	15	155
Scotland	3	-	4	2	71	13	88
Wales	3	5	4	1	152	19	172

(Source: Office for National Statistics, Regional Trends,1996, p.144)

Police Manpower: by type, 1994-1995

		Police Officers on ordinary duty (% of which)				Special Constables and civilian staff (rates per 1,000 officers on ordinary duty)
	Number	Ethnic Minorities	Women Officers	Population per Officer	Hectares per Officer	Special Constables	Civilian Staff	Traffic Wardens (Numbers)
Northern Ireland	11,692	-	8.5	140	121	128	235	152
England	118,827	1.8	14.7	434	110	159	411	4,526
Scotland	14,313	0.2	11.7	359	539	138	259	535
Wales	6,353	0.6	10.9	459	327	194	348	168

(Source: Office for National Statistics, Regional Trends,1996, p.146)

Young Offenders: Juveniles found guilty by offence group anddisposal, 1985-1994

	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994
Indictable Offences
Burglary and Robbery	469	385	285	270	239	242	201	172	159	189
Fraud	12	10	21	6	10	10	10	16	14	14
Theft and Unauthorised Taking	390	487	421	417	291	289	296	224	252	249
Handling Stolen Goods	28	43	14	40	17	40	32	23	28	34
Sexual Offences	7	22	12	15	14	17	8	11	7	8
Offences against the Person	26	47	55	57	33	44	38	46	43	49
Other Offences	54	175	175	144	148	106	108	96	97	131
All Indictable Offences	921	1,169	983	909	752	748	693	588	600	674

Non-indictable Offences
Assaults	105	94	78	80	82	59	53	55	63	68
Offences connected with Motor Vehicles	213	370	128	100	81	92	71	40	44	74
Malicious Damage	120	28	29	9	10	9	3	2	1	2
Disorderly Behaviour	127	123	90	49	47	47	41	36	28	31
Other Offences	61	82	66	52	47	23	14	19	33	30
All Non-indictable Offences	602	697	391	290	267	230	182	152	169	205

Disposal by Courts
Absolute Discharge	24	40	23	19	12	15	10	9	4	9
Conditional Discharge	449	454	375	266	215	221	222	209	258	241
Fine	282	548	270	205	174	135	91	79	52	66
Probation Order	294	304	221	255	213	229	174	171	165	198
Training School Order	189	259	223	170	173	144	174	119	118	187
Remand Home Order	21	16	3	3	2	8	10	2	1	2
Young Offenders Centre^[1]	-	-	-	-	-	-	31	32	23	30
Community Service Order^[2]	-	-	-	-	-	-	27	22	20	23
Otherwise dealt with	264	245	259	281	230	226	136	97	128	123
All Offences	1,523	1,866	1,374	1,199	1,019	978	875	740	769	879

(Source: Northern Ireland Annual Abstract of Statistics,1996)

[1] Applicable to 16 year olds from 30 October 1989
[2] Included in the 'otherwise dealt with' category until 1991

Persons found Guilty of Indictable Offences: by Offence Groupand Age (1994)

(a)Found Guilty at Magistrates' Courts
(a)Found Guilty at Crown Courts

(a)Found Guilty at Magistrates' Courts

	Age
Offence Group	<14	14-16	17-20	21-29	30-49	>50	Age unknown	All ages
Males
Offences against the person	-	33	225	502	310	19	8	1,097
Sexual Offences	-	6	14	20	97	14	-	81
Burglary	39	131	292	259	129	6	11	867
Robbery	-	7	3	-	-	-	-	10
Theft and handling stolen goods	28	214	632	866	519	76	16	2,351
Fraud and Forgery	2	10	88	182	122	18	-	422
Criminal Damage	17	92	313	345	191	25	11	994
Others	-	14	164	324	123	16	4	645
All Males	86	507	1,731	2,498	1,421	174	50	6,467

Females
Offences against the person	1	6	17	36	22	1	2	85
Sexual Offences	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Burglary	1	6	7	12	1	-	-	27
Robbery	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Theft and handling stolen goods	8	30	123	153	186	33	4	537
Fraud and Forgery	-	2	24	32	39	2	-	99
Criminal Damage	1	7	14	23	21	1	1	68
Others	-	-	6	18	11	-	-	35
All Females	11	51	191	274	280	37	7	851

All Persons	97	558	1,922	2,772	1,701	211	57	7,318

(b) Found Guilty at Crown Courts

	Age
Offence Group	<14	14-16	17-20	21-29	30-49	>50	Age unknown	All ages
Males
Offences against the person	-	5	60	146	83	7	-	301
Sexual Offences	-	2	8	15	25	16	-	65
Burglary	-	2	22	34	22	2	-	82
Robbery	-	2	41	89	24	-	-	156
Theft and handling stolen goods	-	3	20	40	58	12	2	135
Fraud and Forgery	-	-	2	8	24	5	1	40
Criminal Damage	-	-	15	32	22	1	-	70
Others	-	-	16	51	40	4	-	111
All Males	-	14	186	415	298	47	3	961

Females
Offences against the person	-	4	2	4	3	1	1	15
Sexual Offences	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	1
Burglary	-	1	-	2	-	-	-	3
Robbery	-	-	1	1	-	-	-	2
Theft and handling stolen goods	-	-	1	7	9	4	-	21
Fraud and Forgery	-	-	-	2	4	1	-	7
Criminal Damage	-	-	-	1	1	-	-	2
Others	-	-	1	11	3	-	1	15
All Females	-	5	5	28	21	6	4	66

All Persons	-	19	189	443	319	53	4	1,027

(Source: Northern Ireland Annual Abstract of Statistics,1996)

Persons sentenced for indictable offences: by disposal, 1995

	Crown Court		Magistrates
	Northern Ireland (%)	England and Wales (%)	Northern Ireland (%)	England and Wales (%)
Discharge	6	5	16	23
Fine	2	5	29	37
Any Community Sentence^[1]	10	30	18	28
Suspended Sentence	28	3	18	-
Immediate Custodial Sentence	53	56	17	9
Otherwise Dealt With^[2]	-	3	1	2

All Persons Sentenced (number)	1,157	71,570	7,576	230,289

[1] Includes probation, community service, supervision and attendancecentre orders as well as combination orders in England and Walesonly
[2] Includes Section 53 of the Children and Young Persons Act1933 (England and Wales)

(Source: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency,Focus on Northern Ireland, 1997)

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