Sir, Your editorial (December 27th) made a strong case for the development of a multi agency approach to crime control. There is no doubt that any attempts to combat crime are frustrated by a lack of basic statistical data and poor coordination between the courts, police, prisons and probation service. Indeed, there can be few other jurisdictions where the causes and consequences of crime are so poorly understood, and the activities of criminal justice agencies so opaque.
Although public anxiety about crime has become acute in recent years and the rate of recorded crime has risen, little effort has been made at a national level to establish the parameters of the "crime problem" through independent empirical investigation. It is to be hoped that priority will now be given to the creation of a comprehensive criminological knowledge base which can be drawn upon to inform policy making.
We would strongly support the calls made by Commissioner Culligan for the opening of a public dialogue on crime. What is required next is the establishment of an independent commission to consider the main issues associated with crime and justice in all of their complexity. Yours, etc.,Research Officer, University of Oxford, Centre for Criminological Research, Oxford. Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University College, Galway.