Almost 200 children were responsible for 10 or more criminal cases each in one year

Irish Times

01-05-2025

Almost 200 children in the State racked up 10 or more cases each in a single 12-month period, latest Garda figures show.
Another 588 children accumulated between four and nine cases each over the course of a year. More than 1,500 had either two or three cases.
The figures are contained in the newly published 2023 annual report by the monitoring group for the Garda Youth Diversion Programme.
When a person under 18 admits to a crime they are automatically referred to the Youth Diversion Programme for assessment and possible inclusion.
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The programme is designed to keep children out of the criminal justice system and usually ends with young offenders being issued with a caution instead of a criminal conviction.
However, if a child is deemed not suitable, they are typically prosecuted as normal in the Children Court.
Just over 15,800 children were referred to the programme in 2023, with 1,200 being deemed not suitable for inclusion.
The latest figures show that a relatively small number of children are responsible for a large proportion of offences which come to Garda attention.
Around 3 per cent (197) of children assessed by the programme had been referred 10 or more times in 2023. Of these, 92 per cent were boys.
Each referral may include more than one charge. The figure does not include referrals made in previous years.
In total, 29 per cent of children assessed by the programme received more than one referral by gardaí during the year.
Children who receive more than one referral are far more likely to be rejected by the programme and therefore prosecuted in the criminal courts, the figures show.
While the total number of referrals remained broadly consistent with previous years, there were large increases in some offending categories. There were 643 cases of burglary in 2023, a 43 per cent increase on the previous year.
Theft-type offences were the most common offence type. There were 4,971 such referrals in 2023, a 5.3 per cent increase. Robbery and driving-under-the-influence offences increased by 9 and 18 per cent respectively.
There were 18 cases of young people transmitting harmful communications. This was made an offence in 2022 under what was known as Coco's law, which was designed to tackled 'revenge porn' and online harassment.
Cases involving public order offences fell by 13 per cent to 2,284. Drug offences dropped 14 per cent to 1,607.
The monitoring group expressed concern about a 45 per cent drop in 'restorative justice cautions'. These are designed to give the young offenders an insight into their crimes and often involve meetings with victims.
The group noted the drop in such cautions was partly down to victims not engaging with the process or offenders withdrawing their admission of responsibility.
Further training was promised to address the fall in such cautions.