Crime stats not worth the fuss

We have a crime problem. Every country in the world has a crime problem. Our crime problem is far less serious than the crime problem in most western countries.

Our murder rate is a fraction of the murder rate of many western countries.

Crime in Ireland has to do, in the main, with homicides, crimes of violence against the person, crimes against property, crimes against the State and sexual crimes. By far the most serious criminality is in the area of sexual crimes, the category of criminality that gets almost no attention.

By far the greatest incidence of criminality has to do with crimes against property and this involves the stealing of property worth less than €500 in value.

Aside from sexual crimes and crimes against the State (mainly tax fraud), by far the greatest incidence of criminality is perpetrated by people from disadvantaged backgrounds. People from well-off backgrounds generally do not commit crimes against property (isn't there a blindingly obvious conclusion to be drawn from that?).

We have a major problem with the casual loss of life. About 50 people get murdered each year. About 400 people get killed on the roads. About 600 people die from suicide (I do not want to suggest this is casual but it is, in part, an avoidable loss of life).

The incidence of death at work is 69, significantly higher than the murder rate. But the incidence of death on the roads and deaths at work and of suicide is not a political issue. This is even though the absence of political initiatives is responsible for road deaths being so high (eight times the incidence of murders) and, one could argue, the same applies to suicide (twelve times the incidence of murders) and work deaths.

Yes, of course, morally, murder is in an entirely different order, but the harm caused is the same, including the grief of the bereaved.

There were hysterics in the Dáil last week, precisely the same hysterics we have about twice a year on crime and always the same stuff. Crime is out of control. People are not safe in their beds.

"People are afraid to walk the streets and anarchy exists in Dublin city," said Enda Kenny on Tuesday of last week.

The Minister for Justice, we were told, has failed yet again to curb the wanton criminality that pervades our society (Enda Kenny said if Michael McDowell serves out his full term as Minister for Justice he will have presided over 500,000 headline crimes - true, but of no significance, as I explain below). Urgent action is now required to root out, once and for all, those gangland criminal bosses that hold communities in fear.

We need 2,000 extra gardaí. Now. We need more legislation. Now. The Dáil should be recalled on St Patrick's Day, we hear, to pass urgent legislation which would end the crime wave at a stroke.

The reality is that crime levels (headline crimes) have hovered around the 100,000 mark since 1985 and most of these crimes are relatively minor offences. The murder rate has gone up recently to about 50, which is the highest we have had since 1974 when the Dublin and Monaghan bombings took place (it was 50 that year). But the murder rate is particularly susceptible to sporadic events, such as the bombings of 1974 and gangland feuds.

A further factor in the murder rate now and possibly in the future may be connected with the influx of foreign nationals, whose lifestyles in this new and not entirely welcoming country may give rise to tensions and conflicts which may result in fatalities.

In other words, crime is not out of control. We are no less safe in our beds than before. The gangland bosses do not hold society in their power.

As for legislation, we have had three or four major pieces of criminal legislation per year, a lot of it irrelevant or obnoxious. As for the gardaí - what do you expect? Promises, promises (incidentally, there is a way of increasing the number of gardaí at a stroke - increase the retirement age from 55 to 60 and do it on an optional basis).

There are other things we could do about crime. Deal with disadvantage in the centres of disadvantage in the urban areas around the country - it is overwhelmingly from these areas that crime emanates. This would not resolve the crime problem now but it would start to deal with the causes of crime (remember there used to be interest in the causes of crime?).

And then there is the drugs issue. The decriminalising of drugs would transform the crime phenomenon and would enable us to confront the social and health problems arising from drugs on an open basis in societal and health terms. But this is one of the taboo subjects on which no rational discussion is possible.

In the meantime, let's just be patient and in a week or so the politicians will have found some other crisis to entertain them.