Sir, - In your article on crime in Ballyfermot (March 14th), Assistant Garda Commissioner McHugh was quoted as saying that national surveys showed that the acceptance of the gardai in the communities is at a very high level. The article went on to say that these results cannot be broken down into specific areas.
In the light of this, the results of research conducted in 1996 in Cork might be of interest. In the course of a survey of crime and its victims we found that those living in working class areas were more likely to be victims of crime than those living in middle class areas. In addition they were more likely to feel that the gardai's understanding of people's problems was poor than were respondents in middle class areas. The working class area that would generally be accepted as having the highest concentration of deprivation in the city had the highest level of crime and the most negative attitudes to the gardai.
In addition, people in middleclass areas were more likely to know a garda to speak to while those in working class areas were less likely to either know one by sight or to speak to. When respondents were asked if the gardai treated people in their areas "a lot better" or "a lot worse" than they treated people in other areas of Cork, we found that class was a key factor. People in working class areas were more likely to feel that they are treated a lot worse than people in other areas of the city.
Overall the results suggest that those living in working class areas where they were more likely to be victims of crime were also those who felt that the gardai did not understand them and did not treat them particularly well.
We hope to replicate the survey in the near future. It will be interesting to see if these attitudes have changed. - Yours, etc.,
Ciaran McCullagh, Lecturer in Sociology, University College, Cork.