Law is not Enough

Noel Coghlan

Issue 380, vol.95, Winter 2006

During a period of unparalleled prosperity here, serious crime has risen. (To take a broad, rounded figure: In five years – 2000 to 2005 – our murder rate rose by 50%). Nor is such a trend in line with the general experience of the industrialised world. So it would suggest that crime here is driven as much by exclusion/need as it is by greed.

The richest 10% of our population is eleven times wealthier than the poorest 10%. For many people, labour conditions are insecure; the average commute to work is lengthening; and, for many, “home” has little connection with any local community. So there is little energy for involvement in social issues; and Social Capital is on the decline. It has been said that Ireland has a strong economy but a weak society: there is indeed a need for something broader than law – for a holistic vision.

Several thousands of our population are in prison for being in breach of the law – many of them sentenced for traffic offences, petty theft, statutory debt. This preference for imprisoning our minor offenders has been dubbed “social street-cleaning” – because many of the ‘big fish’ of (often white-collar) crime remain untouched. Indeed, little attention is given to non-custodial options (probation, community service, restorative justice); and financial cheese-paring in the prison system has resulted in funding-cutbacks for literacy classes, libraries, workshops – with the absence of specialist psychiatric support for sex offenders. The name of the game (it has been said) is “human warehousing” – rather than rehabilitation.

Ultimately, ‘zero tolerance’ of law-breaking is not going to be enough. Needed are : preventive support-programmes for families at risk of criminality; measures against substance-abuse in their local community; remedial schooling. Anti-social behaviour is only a symptom; what of the conditions causing it ? The resources of the criminal-justice system need to be buttressed by those of the social services.

But what chance does such an innovation stand, in a State whose percentage spend (of Gross Domestic Product) on ‘social protection’ is one of the lowest in Europe? The Celtic Tiger’s commercial competitiveness has required a low-tax economy – and a low-tax economy can ill afford protective subvention for people like victims of un-renewed temporary contracts or of out-sourcing. Ireland’s public-sector has been starved of resources – in favour or our wealth producing private-sector.

Noel Coghlan, a former Eurocrat, has played an active part in voluntary groups since his retirement in 1999.