Ireland’s Real Crime Culture

Fear of crime is being heightened by the Irish media through the means of distorting facts and statistics in order to create a more disrupting and incomprehensible view of Irish society today.

There are many ways of embellishing and manipulating crime statistics to paint a picture that suits the editorial line of a newspaper. The real picture of crime in Ireland is much different that what the media says it is. The factual proof that is overlooked is the evidence that Ireland still is entwined in a semi-caste society.

In ideological terms, Ireland consists mainly of “a middle working class” with predominantly viable and comfortable incomes. However, on the outskirts, there is the undercurrent of the poor working class who remain stricken and live below or on the poverty line. This is illustrated specifically in the Dublin metropolitan region where crime rates are at least double that of other regions in the country and where the majority of impoverishment exists.

Garda statistics from their annual crime report relay that theft and burglaries are Ireland’s principle occurrences of crime. Of all crime reported, 84% is theft related. According to the Garda statistics, there were 85,105  incidents of theft, robbery and burglary in Ireland in 2005. Of these, 31,756 incidents were thefts from a person, excluding theft of and from vehicles.

The media fail to investigate statistics in a logical fashion. Statistically, this relates to 31,756 of the population being directly affected by personal theft or robbery. That is less than 1% of the overall population of Ireland yet according to the media, Ireland is supposedly experiencing a crime crisis.

In comparison to other European countries, Ireland is facing a far less destructive and dangerous society. Looking at statistics from Germany in 2003  and Ireland in 2005, the evidence suggests that Ireland is a relatively safe society in comparison (making allowances for slight differences for different years).

By proportionally representing Ireland’s population as the same as Germany’s, it shows that Ireland’s crime rates are approximately half of that of Germany’s. In 2003, Germany experienced 2,541 murders and manslaughters. In 2003, Ireland experienced 52 murders and manslaughters. Relating this proportionally, if Ireland had the same population as Germany this would result in 1,066 murders and manslaughters. 

The same applies to theft and robberies. In 2003, Germany experienced a total of 3,029,390 thefts, robberies and burglaries. Relating this again to Ireland, the concluding amount equals that of 1,770,934. These are huge differences and can be plainly seen through two developed western European countries. 

Another source of crime statistics used by Irish media is the Gallup Institute’s “Burden of Crime in Europe Report 2004”. This was a survey partly funded by the European Commission which looked at personal crime in 18 of Europe’s countries. In this, Ireland was touted as one of the countries with the highest rates of crime. The report stated that approximately 7% of Ireland’s population was affected by personal theft. This is a difference of 6% between a phone survey and An Garda Siochana’s official reported statistics.

However this report is ultimately flawed as its methodology is questionable and inconclusive. It consisted of surveying 2,000 people per country. In Ireland the response rate of these calls was only 41.8% which means that only 837 people were surveyed. The conclusion of this report was that Ireland was a high risk crime country, especially in the fields of theft and burglary, and sexual assaults against women.

It reported that 3.5% of women reported being a victim of sexual assault yet it does not specify of the 837 people surveyed, how many of these were women. The question they then asked the surveyee was “People sometimes grab, touch or assault others for sexual reasons in a really offensive way. This can happen either at home, or elsewhere, for instance in a pub, the street, at school, on public transport, in cinemas, on the beach, or at one’s workplace. Over the past five years, has anyone done this to you?”

The answer of yes is open to anyone that has been in an Irish pub late at night where the majority of people are drunk. The Daily Irish Mail on the 6th February ran with the front page headline of “Shameful Truth of Sex Crime in Ireland.” This is a simple avoidance of logical thinking in place of wanting to sell more units.