Anti-social Crime

by Cieran Perry

The recent release of a report called "They shoot children, don’t they?" by Professor Liam Kennedy of Queen’s University in Belfast again raises the issue of Anti Social crime and how it should be dealt with. The report itself is deeply flawed due to it being so biased against the paramilitaries and the lack of understanding of the pressure from communities for something to be done about people engaged in anti social activities. While this is only to be expected from a report commissioned by the "Northern Ireland Committee Against Terror" the statistics quoted in the report do merit comment. The report states that punishment attacks on youths in Northern Ireland have almost doubled since the signing of the Belfast Agreement.

According to the report Loyalists have carried out 496 punishments shooting while Republicans have carried out 636. If the figures reported are true, they are compiled from RUC statistics, it is further proof that the problem of anti social behaviour is growing. It is not just a problem in the 6 counties- reports throughout Ireland and Britain document a serious rise in this type of behaviour. In the week before the release of the report a member of a residents association in Ballybeg in Waterford had shots fired through his front door as part of a campaign of intimidation by local anti social elements. Almost a quarter of the residents of the Clonard Park estate where the incident happened have applied for a transfer. A woman in North Inner City Dublin had her car burned out after objecting to drug dealing in her flats complex. A family in Blanchardstown in north Dublin had the windows of their house broken after complaining to the police about anti social behaviour in a neighbouring house. Thousands of incidents like the above go unreported in working class areas throughout the country.

While all commentators are agreed that punishment attacks and ‘vigilante’ responses are wrong, not one commentator has given a coherent or definite answer to the question ‘How do we tackle anti social activities?’ The more progressive of the commentators have acknowledged the link between social depravation and anti social crime. John Lonergan, Governor of Mountjoy prison in Dublin, has been very outspoken on this issue. He points to the fact that over 75% of Dublin prisoners come from six clearly identifiable disadvantaged areas and that all of these areas were ‘infested with Heroin’. He notes that, as a society, we were continuing to develop communities where only certain classes of people were housed. To further confirm the growing divide between rich and poor in Ireland a report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) tells us that the amount of people living below half the average income has increased to 20%. Also this year a United Nations report informs us that proportionately more people live in poverty in Ireland than any other industrialised nation outside the United States.

With the above reports in mind and the ever increasing pressure on working class communities such as deteriorating health services, lack of facilities, increasing service charges etc… it’s hardly surprising that people are demanding that something is done about this form of community torture. It’s quite obvious at this stage that the police do not have the political will to tackle anti social activities in these communities. There is no way that activities plaguing working class communities would be tolerated in middle class areas. The current drug situation in Dublin is evidence of this. There isn’t any middle class area in Dublin that could compare to any working class area for availability of Heroin. As the Police already have both the manpower and resources, with genuine political willpower, they could have a huge impact on the drug trade in Ireland. The more cynical view, that the police have an interest in keeping working class communities at each other’s throats, becomes more believable given their inaction on anti social crime. If the police have no interest in tackling the communities’ problems it is left to the community themselves to try and solve their own problems.

At present there are two opposing views of how to tackle anti social behaviour. One, the liberal interpretation, sees the perpetrator as the victim, blaming society for all the community’s ills. Some of the current Restorative Justice schemes fall into this category. In theory Restorative Justice is a good idea – anything which gives people more control over their own lives must be beneficial. Considering the class based bias of the current justice system and the fact that simply locking up people doesn’t work, community based justice schemes are the way forward. Whether the current crop of Restorative Justice schemes meet these requirements remains to be seen but so far the omens are not good. Some of the main exponents of Restorative Justice see it as an alternative to the formal justice system. The main failing of this theory of Restorative Justice is that it is voluntary. What is done if the perpetrator simply refuses to co-operate?

A lot of waffle has been written and spoken about Restorative Justice, but very few have confronted the contradiction of being an alternative to the formal justice system and to the informal ‘justice system’ of the punishment beating - while not having any sanction against the individual who refuses to co-operate with the community. While some of the results of the Restorative Justice schemes in both Australia and Canada have been impressive for some types of minor crime, it is used in conjunction with the regular justice system and cannot be viewed as a community based justice system. Another problem with the current Restorative Justice schemes in the 6 counties is that in some areas they are seen to be used as a means of control by one political organisation or another.

The opposing view sees punishment beatings or shootings as the answer to the problem. It’s perfectly understandable that victims of anti social crime would want to see swift retribution because they know that the police have no interest in helping them. Inevitably this retribution simply becomes revenge. While there is without doubt political opportunists who prey on peoples desire for revenge, the majority of people engaged in or calling for retribution are genuinely at their wits end in relation to anti social crime. But the bottom line on punishment beatings or shootings, apart from the morality of it, is that they simply don’t work. The problem remains.

A couple of points should be kept in mind when discussing anti social behaviour. Only a small minority of the youth of an area are engaged in serious anti social activity. Of this minority an even smaller amount make up the hardcore of the anti social elements. If this hardcore could be isolated from the rest a space could be created to tackle the problems, real or perceived, of the youth of the area.

While Republicans or Socialists would have little or no faith in the current justice system, until we can provide an alternative there is no point in living in a dreamland where the anti social elements, with a little coaxing, will suddenly admit the error of their ways and become respected members of the community or where the men with the woolly faces will solve all our problems. We should not fool ourselves that the state will readily relinquish control of the justice system, control of society is largely based on control of the justice system. And make no mistake, if or when a genuine community alternative to the current justice system is put forward the state will extract a heavy price. Members of the anti drug movement in Dublin are still imprisoned for doing the police’s job and defending their communities from the drug dealers.

Anti social crime is top of the agenda in most working class communities. If political activists are genuinely interested in community issues the debate about how to tackle this problem must begin immediately.