Adult and Youth Reoffending in Northern Ireland (2022/23 Cohort) Published Today

Date published: 16 October 2025

This annual Official Statistics publication provides information on the one year proven reoffending rate for offenders who received a non-custodial disposal at court, a diversionary disposal or who were released from custody during 2022/23 within Northern Ireland.  Information is presented in relation to the full cohort and also disaggregated in relation to adults (those aged 18 and over) and youths (those aged 17 and under). The main findings of this report are presented below.

Adult and Youth Reoffending in Northern Ireland (2022/23 Cohort)

• This annual bulletin provides information on the one year proven reoffending rate for offenders who received a non-custodial disposal at court, a diversionary disposal or who were released from custody during 2022/23 in Northern Ireland.  Information is presented in relation to the full cohort and disaggregated by adults (aged 18 and over) and youths (aged 17 and under).
• Of the 20,373 people included in the 2022/23 cohort, 3,591 (17.6%) reoffended during the one year observational period (adults 17.3%, youths 24.1%).
• The cohort was made up of 19,455 adults (95.5%) and 918 young people (4.5%). Of the adults within the cohort, 17.3% reoffended. The corresponding figure for young people was 24.1%.
• Of the 3,591 who reoffended, almost half (46.2%) committed their first reoffence within the first three months (adults 46.1%, youths 48.0%).
• In terms of offending history, 63.7% of the cohort had committed previous offences, ranging from one to 455 distinct offences, (adults 65.4%, youths 27.2%).
• Overall, 13.4% of females and 18.7% of males had reoffended (adult females 13.1% and adult males 18.4%, youth females 19.5% and youth males 25.4%).
• The one year proven reoffending rate for;
  • custody releases was 46.0% (adults 46.0% and 5 of 9 youths).
• community disposal (supervision) was 28.5% (adults 26.8%, youths 58.3%).
• community disposal (no supervision) was 16.9% (adults 16.8%, youths 31.8%).
• diversionary disposal was 16.0% (adults 14.7%, youths 20.8%).
• The highest reoffending rates were found among those who committed a baseline robbery offence (35.9%), followed by burglary (35.1%) and theft (30.3%).  This was similar for adults only (robbery 36.8%, burglary 36.0%, theft 31.0%). For youths, the highest reoffending rates were found among those with a baseline offence of fraud (3 out of 5), followed by drugs (35.6%), burglary (31.6%) and public order (31.3%).