There was a time when murder was such an isolated incident here that it inevitably made the headlines. Not any more.
If my count is correct, , I covered six killings in the south west within the space of 18 months. Not too many years earlier, any one of them would have earned shocked page one headlines. But nowadays such incidents are often consigned to inside pages.
Prof James W. Clarke, a visiting Fulbright Scholar, teaching history this term at UCC, has some interesting insights. For almost 30 years he has studied what is called the underclass in America, particularly black-on-black crime, and some of the underlying reasons for it.
His book, The Lineaments of Wrath - Race, Violent Crime and American Culture, is a disturbing window on a drama not yet played out.
His life's work has been to explore and understand the cause and effect of the race issue and how it impinges on modern society. He has drawn some startling conclusions.
"The thing is, I do not want to be seen as a know-it-all American who thinks he has a greater wisdom to offer," he says. But he has been following with considerable interest the events, warts and all, that shape daily life in Ireland.
Just as in Ireland, the American economy is booming. There are similarities between our Celtic tiger and Uncle Sam's puma. Yet there is a growing crime wave that concerns both nations.
In America there are legendary reasons, including a failed judicial system in the south prior to emancipation, which has engendered a deep-rooted suspicion of the law and police among the blacks who have long since moved north to cities such as New York.
Blacks tend to administer their own form of justice because the last thing they would think of doing is calling in members of a police force they do not trust.
The professor has been looking with some fascination at a similar phenomenon in Northern Ireland, where large sections of the Catholic population place little or no trust in the RUC.
"The similarities keep popping out. There are forces that drive communities. One of them is when folk lose respect for their police force. It is simply not possible to have a civilised, stable society if there is no respect for the rule of law. That leads people of one particular origin or background, like the blacks in America and, if I'm right, the Catholics in Northern Ireland, to look inwards for protection.
"They don't resort to the conventional methods. Instead, because of a perceived lack of justice in the system, the law is not invoked and punishment, or retribution, is dished out locally but outside the confines of the law."
Prof Clarke believes that emotional and intellectual strengths are fostered in youngsters between the ages of one and five years, and that mothers have a powerful role to play in this process. He further believes that in America there is a parenting crisis which, apart from racial issues, accounts for many of the problems associated with disturbed youth.
He even goes so far as to say that if you examine the spate of schoolyard/classroom shootings, you will invariably find a troubled background. Often the youngster carrying out the attack, he says, will have come from a home where there was never enough attention in his or her formative years because both parents were under pressure just to maintain a fairly average lifestyle.
Looking at the flourishing Irish economy and the new forces which have been brought to bear on people's lives, he thinks there are some potentially disturbing similarities. As property prices go through the roof, he wonders if young couples will be able to cope.
It seems increasingly obvious that both partners will have to work if they are to have any hope of entering the housing pool. What, then, are the implications for child-rearing, he wonders.
In America, Prof Clarke says, an entire generation has grown up without knowing the full meaning of family life. Mothers and fathers rush off in the morning and either someone comes in to mind the children or they are farmed out to child-minding services. The signs are that the same will happen here.
There are other questions about the boom times in which we live. What, he asks, is the position of the bottom third of our population? Is the new-found wealth trickling down to it or, like America, is enrichment for those who already have most?
Sweden, he says, sets an example of how to address the issue. There the state subsidises mothers for the first five years after childbirth, so that they will not lose out financially while being with the child in the important early years. The parenting crisis is one of the most important issues in America, he adds.
There may be still time for our State to act.