La convinzione persistente che il crimine sia un grave problema nazionale in Irlanda non è vera
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025/08/09/the-persistent-belief-that-crime-is-a-serious-national-problem-in-ireland-is-not-true/
di interfaceconfig
13 commenti
Really that’s nice.
Must be magic crime. Schrödingers crime.
Crime isn’t the problem. A shite police force is the problem.
Nothing like a bit of gaslighting with the morning coffee!
Nothing to see here
This issue has been pretty consistent across the west for the last few decades.
While actual crime statistics go down, the fear of crime rises in the public.
I think the way to combat this perception is by fighting quality of life crimes. So anti social behaviour. Things like open drug and alcohol use, graffiti, damage to property, loitering, intimidation, drug dealing etc.
If you tackle these crimes, which are the ones people actually see, it should increase people’s feeling of safety.
Ignore the headline and the first half of the article.
It’s the second half that matters.
A crime that happens to you even if it is classified as non serious, ie no one was physically injured is a very serious matter and effects how we see everything else around us certainly for a while. And this kind of crime, against our property esp phone theft etc on the streets has a debilitating impact on people.
Beyond the headlines the chipping away of “street safety” is degrading our experience of the public realm and that matters because it damages us as social animals, shoppers, shop owners, taxi drivers, publicans and so on.
Stay safe, stay at home.
Overall the opinion piece couches things ok but I don’t like the title. This paragraph I think is important:
> The thing about petty crime is it isn’t that petty if you are the victim. If you are the one getting your phone stolen in broad daylight, or your wallet with your cards lifted on the Luas, or your bicycle taken and lock smashed, it will affect you, change you, in many cases permanently. Your sense of justice is affected, your sense of personal security might not recover, your anxiety and anger levels increase.
And this near the end:
> Even though serious violent crime has been falling consistently, the rise of in-your-face, out-in-the-open offences is a massive problem for the State. It can’t be underestimated or downplayed.
I think the piece is missing a massive part of the puzzle by not mentioning 24 hour news stations (like Fox News) and social media platforms and many of their sponsors profit from you staying inside scared looking or reading about all the scary things happening in the world.
The way they record them goes down. I grew up in the 90s it was so safe back then. What has changed?
Public perception of crime is almost always that it is more prevalent and serious than crime statistics suggest.
This is one of the first things you’re taught in criminal law, because legislation and policy are often driven more by public perception than by empirical crime data.
You will never convince the public that crime is less prevalent than they believe, because perceptions are shaped more by personal experience, media narratives, and cultural attitudes than by statistical evidence.
the problem isn’t so much the crime as how it is dealt with. ask anyone if they have confidence that when they ring the Guards to report a crime that it will be dealt with efficiently.
If the underlying data is flawed present day statistics are meaningless and amounts to gaslighting.
I was in Dublin the other day, in my 25 minute walk by the quays, I saw 2 men beating the crap out of each other, a group of women breaking into one of those bottle bins to take the bottles and ‘recycle’ them, multiple instances of open drug dealing, and even more of drug use… but statistically as none of this was reported, there was no crimes being committed, so all is grand.
I’m easily influenced enough to be a big proponent of increased prison capacity and stricter sentences for repeat offenders, but self-aware enough to know that a huge factor in this belief is social media and videos.
Two people brawl beside a bus stop in Athlone – I see it.
A gang of masked youths rob a bike in broad daylight in Limerick – I see it.
A mentally unwell man walks down the street screaming and threatening people who walk past him in Cork – I see it.
Previously the only crime you really knew about was what you read/heard on the news, or what happened to you or people you know. Now we’re aware of virtually every act of theft, fighting, public order offences and we can actually watch them again and again.
What’s bothering me is a large amount of the antisocial behaviour in my area is one large group of teens. They got to Lidl and rob eggs to throw at people, they pour washing up liquid on the floors etc. They stand outside harassing people particularly the security guard and do this constantly. Then they go down to McDonald’s and try to do the same. People know it’s the same kids. Guards do nothing.