THE Taoiseach and Minister for Justice are to address an international conference on crime, justice and public order, which is being held in Dublin Castle next week.
The conference is being organised by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York in conjunction with the Garda Siochana and the Department of Justice.
Academics, senior police and justice officials from 27 countries are attending the six day conference which opens on Monday.
Introducing the conference programme yesterday, the Garda Commissioner, Mr Patrick Culligan, said the event "underpinned the importance of greater co operation on the global issues" of crime.
He said crime problems, like drug abuse, were features of all modern societies. He said it was timely and appropriate that the experts from the various fields of criminal justice from around the world come together - to discuss problems which "beset and damage quality of life".
The president of John Jay College, Dr Gerald Lynch, said one of the developments under recent research by the college was the fall in New York's murder rate.
He said the number of homicides in the city had fallen by 50 per cent in two years. There were "1,000 fewer people killed than there were two years ago", which had been mainly accounted for by a fall in homicides among black and Hispanic males. This had coincided with more "pro active" policing in the city which made drug dealers less inclined to carry firearms, he said.
There had been no corresponding fall in the number of assaults against women or against white males. The college was studying the results of the drop in homicide in New York to see if there were lessons that could be applied to other cities.
Dr Lynch congratulated the Garda on its training programme which, he said, along with Sweden, was probably the best recruit-training programme in the world.
The conference is entitled "International Perspectives on Crime, Justice and Public Order".
The subject headings include: ethical considerations in criminal justice; forensics and DNA analysis; terrorism: acts, meaning and response; substance abuse prevention and treatment; Ireland: history, immigration and policing, crime as a global concern; the prevention and treatment of childhood aggression; police reform; monitoring police behaviour; crime prevention; the future of law enforcement; international perspectives on drugs; criminal justice and the media, and contemporary issues in police public relations.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice is part of the City University of New York. It has more than 10,000 undergraduate students, 900 masters students and some 100 Ph.D students.