To improve safety, we must be smart on crime

by Dr Ian Marder

Not for the first time and not for the last, crime and community safety in Dublin are hot topics.

Many people may feel genuine fear of falling victim to a theft or random act of violence.

Others, with more than a whiff of prejudice, may berate places like O’Connell St or the North Inner City.

Often, they haven’t spent much time there.

Some just talk up these issues for political gain.

They might repeat that crime is rising, when the most reliable statistics don’t necessarily back this up.

They announce policies to appear ‘tough’ on crime before election season, without making smart, long-term investments in prevention.

A political poster that my colleague saw on a Dublin lamppost this week, calling to ‘make crime illegal’, sums up the problems that occur when politics and criminal justice mix.

I’m a criminologist at Maynooth University, where I’ve worked for six years.

Throughout this time, I’ve lived in Dublin 3 in the North East Inner City.

In my job, I teach and research across different aspects of criminal justice – things like policing, sentencing, probation, prisons, drug policy and services for victims of crime.

For each topic, we use evidence from Ireland and internationally to draw conclusions about the best ways forward for society.

Fortunately, there is lots of research suggesting how we can reduce harm in communities.

This includes preventing violence and other forms of crime that are most likely to make the news, as well as harms that receive less attention, like wage theft and workplace injuries.

It also includes exploring how we might meet the needs of victims of crime.

Victim services are woefully underfunded across Europe.

Here, some of our most critical victim services can count their staff on one hand.

This is part of the frustration I feel when I see large investments in expanding the prison system.

We know from Irish and international research that prisons are filled with people who have been failed by society.

Perhaps they caused some harm to another person, but this often stems from issues like childhood trauma, addiction, mental health and homelessness.

Why waste money intentionally making their lives worse: what we call ‘retribution’ or ‘punitive’ approaches?

Instead, we could invest in preventing harm in the first place.

When some crimes inevitably happen, we can focus on helping people solve problems in their lives to make it less likely they commit crime again.

Our justice system needs to be evidence-based.

This mean we should learn from research that shows how to make us all safer. Locking more people up for longer is not the best way to do this.

This may be counterintuitive for people who believe that increasing prison sentences can deter or help rehabilitate, but the evidence suggests it achieves neither goal.

Justice must also have respect for human dignity.

Putting people in cages when their sentences could be served in the community and failing to provide services for victims is not a system that promotes dignity.

There is much that Ireland does well. Although the prison population is growing, Ireland already has systems for resolving crime outside of court, and services that help people serve sentences in the community.

If these were scaled up, used more often, and supported to adopt evidence-led approaches, we could help people move away from crime.

Our youth diversion system is also strong by international standards. Ireland has a long history of youth and community work that does amazing work on a shoestring budget.

There are some investments being made in this area.

Again, my reading of the international evidence suggests that we should prioritise this, if we want our young people to contribute fully to Irish society.

These are some of the broad strokes of what makes for effective criminal justice policies.

There are many specific reforms I’d like to see here because they’ve been effective in other countries – some of which will definitely surprise you.

The first step is to forget about being ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ on crime and aim to be smart instead.

If we can do that, better times ahead will follow.

Dr. Ian Marder is Assistant Professor in Criminology, Maynooth University