There has been an increase in crime across Northern Ireland in the past year including a rise in violent and sexual offences.
The PSNI has released its recorded crime in Northern Ireland monthly update which shows that from February 1, 2021 to January 31, 2022, there was a 10.2% increase in crime compared to the year before. 104,625 crimes were recorded, 9,646 more than the year before when there were 94,979.
Nine out of the eleven police districts saw an increase in crime, with the Antrim and Newtownabbey area seeing the largest rise with nearly 20% more incidents than the previous year. Ards and North Down saw a 17% increase while Belfast City had a 13% rise.
South Belfast saw the largest increase in crime with 1,816 more reports than the year before, a 21% increase. The area also had the most crime reported in Belfast with 10,487.
While there was a decrease in the numbers of theft and robbery offences in Northern Ireland, there was a rise in the number of Violence against a person cases, sexual offences, criminal damage and drugs offences.
47,940 violence against a person offences were recorded in the past year, 8,765 more than the year before which was a 22.4% increase. There was a 74% rise in the number of incidents of death or serious injury caused by unlawful driving with 146 cases being recorded compared to 84 the previous year.
There was also a 19% rise in violence with injury cases with 13,909 incidents, a 22% rise in violence without injury and 2,961 more cases of harassment recorded.
Sexual offences also saw a 18% increase compared to the previous year 3,935 cases reported, a rise of 610. There was also 198 more incidents of rape reported to police with 1,207.
The PSNI report said: "When compared with the previous year the level of crime was lower in February 2021, with March 2021 through to January 2022 showing higher levels. Lockdown measures in relation to Covid-19 were first introduced on March 23rd 2020. When comparing each month, the only month showing a fall was February 2021, with 1,210 (14.7 per cent) fewer offences compared with February 2020, while the largest increase was April 2021 with2,103 (32.2 per cent) more offences compared with April 2020. Looking at the latest month, there were 1,548 (22.6 per cent) more offences recorded in January 2022 when compared with January 2021."
