DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - The most violent country in Europe: Britain is also worse than South Africa and U.S.

**KneefeZes** · 12-08-2009, 08:37 PM

Crime rates have fallen in N. Ireland since the peace agreement in 1998.
Ironically even prior to that the crime rates were lower than in the rest of the UK according to statistics.
In fact from 1969-1998 the total death count was 3477. I am confident that this ranks lower than the murder rate in many major cities in US and the rest of the UK.

While I don't disagree with anything you're saying, I'd also add that many of the crimes such as punishment shootings are not tallied in those statistics. Also, the crimes that happened in Catholic ghettos such as the Falls were, and are, routinely under-reported if they're reported at all. That is the consequence of having a population that is largely distrustful of the PSNI.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that statistics only tell part of the story in the North and can't be relied on for a true picture.

Also, the resurgence of "dissident Republican" activity means that the figures could continue to rise. Today's Derry Journal paints a bleak pictures for example...

This is not to say that the UK has the same kind of violent crime we do here, my point was only to say that the inclusion of the North's crime rate could have thrown off the average if they indeed were including not only the troubles related deaths, but also the "regular" crime so evident in a place where unemployment is well above 10% in some areas.

12-08-2009, 08:37 PM	#14
KneefeZes Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 436 Senior Member	Crime rates have fallen in N. Ireland since the peace agreement in 1998. Ironically even prior to that the crime rates were lower than in the rest of the UK according to statistics. In fact from 1969-1998 the total death count was 3477. I am confident that this ranks lower than the murder rate in many major cities in US and the rest of the UK. While I don't disagree with anything you're saying, I'd also add that many of the crimes such as punishment shootings are not tallied in those statistics. Also, the crimes that happened in Catholic ghettos such as the Falls were, and are, routinely under-reported if they're reported at all. That is the consequence of having a population that is largely distrustful of the PSNI. So, I guess what I'm saying is that statistics only tell part of the story in the North and can't be relied on for a true picture. Also, the resurgence of "dissident Republican" activity means that the figures could continue to rise. Today's Derry Journal paints a bleak pictures for example... This is not to say that the UK has the same kind of violent crime we do here, my point was only to say that the inclusion of the North's crime rate could have thrown off the average if they indeed were including not only the troubles related deaths, but also the "regular" crime so evident in a place where unemployment is well above 10% in some areas.
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