W2B-011 Crime - Initiative 92-0.txt
Rough Justice

Brice Dickson

People sometimes claim that Northern Ireland is an over-researched society. They point to the myriad of books and articles devoted to the place and duly pronounce that very little else remains to be said. The truth is, nevertheless, that there is still some relatively unexplored territory.

One of the fields which is most obviously in need of further research is that of criminology - the study of crime, criminals and criminal justice agencies. There is in fact a yawning gap in local knowledge about the exact nature of criminal activity in Northern Ireland, the kinds of people who commit crimes, their motivation, recidivism, and the impact of criminal behaviour on the condition of society in general.

This ignorance is all the more remarkable given the level of violent activity in the North since 1969. It is almost as if the'special' nature of that violence, its 'political' links, rendered 'ordinary' crime less worthy of attention. Now that politically motivated violence has mercifully receded, the time has surely come to look in more detail at the sorts of issues which have been the subject of debate in less divided societies.

The mechanisms for conducting such studies are now in place. Unusual to give credit to a government department, the recent conversion of the Northern Ireland Office to the study of crime must be applauded. That office now publishes an annual research strategy and is positively on the lookout for projects to fund: its budget may be tiny compared with that of the Home Office, but at least the need for local research has at last been recognised.

The NIO is also largely responsible for the establishment of an Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Queen's and for the funding of postgraduate studentships in criminology at both Queen's and Jordanstown. Moreover, several officials from the Criminal Justice and Statistics Divisions of the NIO are strong supporters of the activities of the NI branch of the British Society of Criminology, which has been flourishing for the past three of four years. Each autumn the NIO sponsors a residential Criminal Justice Conference for some of the key players in statutory and voluntary agencies involved in the administration of criminal justice.

The very fact that voluntary agencies are being allowed greater influence is an indication of the sea change on the part of the government. Organisations such as Extern, NIACRO, Victim Support and the Committee on the Administration of Justice are now actually solicited for advice on some issues, rather than sidelined as subversives or do-gooders. Statutory bodies like the Police Authority and the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights are beginning to recognise the value of consultation and public debate on criminal justice issues, even if they do not always ensure that these processes are fully inclusive (and even if they themselves are often excluded from such processes when initiated elsewhere).

Not all bodies, however, are yet co-operative. The RUC is still fond of holding its own conferences while refusing to attend anyone else's. Within the resent past the Independent Commission for Police Complaints has twice refused to participate in debates at the University of Ulster on what changes, if any, are required to the complaints system in Northern Ireland. The Crime statistics published in the Chief Constable's Annual Report are not accompanied by any in-depth analyses, nor are the figures issued by the Court Service (again, the NIO's Commentary on Crime Statistics is the best document available). The DPP's Office still refuses to issue either public guidelines on it's prosecuting policies or annual reports on its achievements.

A great deal remains to be done. In particular, the results of the first ever Northern Ireland Crime Survey, which are currently being tabulated by the NIO, require detailed scrutiny. They need to be compared with the results of surveys taken elsewhere and with other equivalent figures taken in the North, such as social attitude surveys, which include questions on crime and policing.

There also needs to be careful work on issues such as where crime is most prevalent, what conditions help it to flourish, whether punishments are effective in diverting offenders (particularly young offenders) from further illegal acts, and, most sensitively of all, what is the connection between 'ordinary' crime rates and paramilitary crime rates. The very definition of criminal conduct - whether victimless crimes such as drug-taking should be punishable - and what more can be done to combat white-collar crime should also be high on the research agenda.

The question of the employability of persons with criminal convictions, especially in jobs that might bring them into contact with physically or emotionally vulnerable people, is very topical too. Following the report into the Martin Hurson case 1994, the government is at last about to issue guidance on using the DHSS's Pre-Employment Consultancy Service, which maintains a register of'suspect' employees. There are clashing rights at stake at this point, so it is to be hoped that the guidelines will be carefully weighted in the balance before any overly-invasive procedures are put in place.

A recent book, on the proceedings of a conference held in the Old Museum Arts Centre in September 1994, casts valuable light on many criminological issues within NI. It contains a useful chapter by John Morrison on how misleading the 'official' crime statistics may be (the difference between recorded crime and actual crime is, as we know from the recent controversies provoked by Michael Howard's conclusions based on the English figures, crucial) and Monica McWilliams explains how the masculinity and militarism of the RUC and paramilitaries are reflected, respectively, in the down-grading of domestic violence as a crime and the harsh treatment meted out to juvenile hoods involved in petty crimes. Ian Paisley Jnr reminds us that you do not have to be a nationalist to distrust the police, while John Brewer lists what he thinks are twelve salient features of policing in any divided society (to me not all of these are by any means inevitable)

Two further chapters, one by Willie Thomson and Barry Mulholland, the other by the book's editor Liam Kennedy, illuminate greatly the murky subject of paramilitary punishment shootings and beatings. The former concentrate on the mental health implications for victims of this 'informal' justice and in a nice reversal of the usual statistic trotted out on unemployment differentials, Kennedy observes that a male catholic nationalist, especially if young, working class and unemployed, is twice as likely to suffer assault and mutilation at the hands of paramilitaries as his protestant unionist counterpart.

Despite its title, the book covers a lot more than crime in west Belfast, though it does tend to focus on crime linked to the troubles. At many points it raises more questions than it answers - a not unusual trait of conference proceedings.

Kennedy's book should be read in conjunction with another set of conference proceedings issued in October by the International Association of Juvenile and Family Court Magistrates, whose secretary is the super-efficient Dr. Willie McCarney of the NI Juvenile Courts Association. For years, Dr McCarney has been beavering away trying to publicise good criminological work in this Association's Lay Panel magazine, which he edits. Last April's conference was perhaps the most ambitious, and successful international criminological conference ever held in NI. It underlined the fundamental point that problems associated with juvenile crime here - with or without the paramilitary overlay - are not so different from those encountered in Brazil, France or the USA. Once again, the need for further detailed research was declared to be paramount.
