Despite recent alarming incidents, criminologists are slow to say street violence is spiralling out of control, writes Joe Humphreys.
The death of Mr Leong Ly Min from injuries suffered in an attack in Dublin last week will do nothing to dampen fears of a perceived dramatic rise in violent street crime in the State.
Headline Garda crime figures last month showed a 94 per cent increase in the number of assaults in 2001 compared to the year before. In 2000 there had been a 131 per cent rise in the number of violent assaults reported to the Garda.
The trend suggests that street violence is spiralling out of control, especially when viewed alongside disturbing reports of seemingly random attacks such as that against Mr Leong.
Criminologists, however, are slow to talk of an epidemic.
Prof Dermot Walsh, professor of law at the University of Limerick, says that there has been an increase in public order offences in recent years, but there is "no hard evidence" to say that the incidence of dramatic acts of violence has increased to the same extent.
"All we have to go on is the anecdotal evidence, which tends to be based on individual incidents that result in serious injury or deaths, and these convey a huge impression of widespread violence. But we may be adding one and one here and getting three."
Prof Walsh says that one has to be careful in interpreting the Garda statistics, since recording mechanisms changed with the introduction of the force's computerised Pulse system in 2000. "The very existence of Pulse means it's almost inevitable that you will record a greater incidence of these offences than in the past."
He notes that a "significant proportion" of street violence occurs at a particular time of the night, in narrowly circumscribed areas. "The feeling of public alarm is perhaps not justified by the nature and extent of the problem. These incidents are not as widespread or as random as they might seem."
As for an explanation for the rise in public order offences, Prof Walsh says that liberalising the licensing laws undoubtedly had a role to play. "Alcohol is more freely available but we, as a society, don't seen to have come to terms with that freedom as quickly as other societies."
Another factor, he believes, may be demographic. In particular, fewer young people are emigrating from Ireland, and these are the very people "who would be out on a Friday or Saturday night, the very people who would be prone to engage in a bit of aggro".
He adds: "I suspect you will find that the proportion of the population in that age group has increased in recent years. Therefore, there has been a bulge in the statistics. Once this feeds its way through, you might find a natural decrease in these sorts of activities, especially when you combine that, hopefully, with the development of a more mature attitude to drinking here."
Waiting for demographics to come to the rescue is not in a politician's make-up, however. Thus, Fine Gael's spokesman on justice, Mr John Deasy, has called for a significant increase in gardaí on the streets, especially at weekends.
The problem, as he sees it, is "a cocktail of a lack of Garda manpower availability, drink and drugs, increased income, particularly among young people, and an utter disrespect for authority among many such young people."
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has signalled his intention to tackle the problem by expediting the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Bill 2002. This will give gardaí new powers, including the closure of premises where disorder is taking place and imposition of an "exclusion order" to prohibit a person from entering, or being near, a specified premises for up to 12 months.
The continuation of violent incidents such as that in Temple Bar last week will ensurethat he demand for Government action does not stop there.