Criminal activity ‘peaked with rise of drugs menace’

Criminal activity in the 1980s peaked, coinciding with the rise of the drugs menace, a new report on five decades of crime showed today.

A study by experts from UCD indicated that crime in Ireland remained stable during the 1950s and 1960s, but hit new heights 20 years later before declining and rising again during the mid-1990s - the time of the drug gang-linked murder of investigative journalist Veronica Guerin in Dublin.

The report, the first of its kind, was produced for the Government-appointed National Crime Council by the university’s Institute of Criminology and concentrated on a 50-year period from 1948.

It found that the most common form of crime was directed against property, with burglary the most commonly indictable offence.

But the report also highlighted a steady increase in cases of murder and manslaughter over the period under examination, with six murders recorded in 1950 and 38 in 1998.

However, while ‘‘non-lethal’’ crime rose over 30 years from the 1950s, it has been declining in the years since that time.

Although the number of recorded sexual offences has shot up over the past 20 years, the report stressed that the rise could have been due to more reporting by victims.

The report was welcomed by Justice Minister John O’Donoghue, who said it would raise public knowledge and awareness of the issue by making available accessible and up-to-date information on actual levels of crime in the country.

He added: ‘‘For many years, the debate about crime in Ireland has been dogged by a lack of research and information.

‘‘I am confident it will be welcomed by a wide variety of practitioners and policy-makers in the criminal justice system.’’

The minister said that despite what he called ‘‘the encouraging downward trend in crime in recent years’’, there was still a need for analysis and discussion to contribute to informed policy-making in the future.

He pointed out that the report indicated that in 1998, crime in Ireland dropped by 6%, together with the figure from Denmark, the largest decrease in Europe.

Mr O’Donoghue pledged to consider a number of recommendations made by the report, centring on the development of crime research and statistics capacities.