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.