4 in 10 female crime victims 'dissatisfied' with how gardaí handled their cases

This compared to a third of men, the 2018 Garda Public Attitudes Survey found.

4 in 10 female crime victims 'dissatisfied' with how gardaí handled their cases

Four out of ten female crime victims surveyed said they were “very or quite dissatisfied” with how gardaí handled their cases.

This compared to a third of men, the 2018 Garda Public Attitudes Survey found.

Four out of ten women also said they worried about becoming a victim of crime and nearly two thirds of females said there were not enough gardaí in their local areas.

The survey revealed that one in eight girls aged 16-17 thought local crime was a serious problem, compared to no boys.

Results do show a range of positive findings for An Garda Siochana, including improvements in how people view the organisation, increases in overall satisfaction levels and continuing very high levels of trust.

The results also show a steady and significant decrease over recent years in crime victimisation rate, from 9.6% of the population at the start of 2016 to 4.5% at the end of 2018.

The 70-page report shows an increase in satisfaction among victims of crime in how gardaí handled their case (from 57% in 2016 to 63% in 2018).

The biggest fall was among those “quite dissatisfied” (26% to 20%), but those “very dissatisfied” has not dropped (17% to 18%).

The survey found that 42% of female victims were “very or quite dissatisfied”, compared to 33% of males.

Dissatisfaction levels were also higher among rural victims compared to those in cities (45% v 36%) and among victims from lower socio-economic groups C2DEF compared to higher groups ABC1 (42% v 33%).

The survey also found that a rising number of victims felt they were not given enough information by gardaí (from 48% to 53%).

In addition, one in seven victims said they were given no status update of their investigation by gardaí (compared to one in ten in 2017).

Four out of ten women said they worry about becoming a victim of crime, compared to 34% of men.

The survey shows that the fear was greatest among people living in Dublin (47%, compared to 31%-35% in the rest of the country) and highest among those in cities (46%, compared to 32% outside cities).

The survey found that less people thought both crime at a national level and locally was as serious an issue as two years ago.

But 75% of females believed national crime was a “very serious or serious problem”, compared to 71% of men, with 20% of women believing the same in relation to crime locally, compared to 18% of men.

A survey of 16-17 years old found that 18% of girls worried about being a victim of crime (14% of boys).

There was a significant rise among people in satisfaction levels in the organisation – increasing from 71% in 2016 to 80% in 2018.

But the figure stood at 63% among victims of crime and 24% of people in Dublin said they were dissatisfied.

There was an increase (35% to 38%) in people being aware of police visibility locally.

Some 60% said garda presence locally was “not enough” and was highest among women (63%), compared to men (58%).

Dissatisfaction with the police presence was much higher in Dublin (74%) and in cities (69%). Among victims of crime it stood at 72%.

Trust in the organisation was very high at 90%.

Some 37% of people believed relations between gardaí and local communities were poor and 42% said gardaí were not dealing with things that matter locally.

People's perceptions of the organisation improved in most areas, including effectiveness in tackling crime (55% to 64%), being community-focused (66% to 72%) and being modern and progressive (61% to 68%).

There has been a slight drop in those who think it is being well managed (50% to 48%) and just 44% believe it provides a world-class service (up from 41%).

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