The growth in immigration has put increased pressure on the criminal courts, according to District Court Judge David Riordan. He said that in his personal observation the proportion of foreign offenders appearing before the courts was between 15 and 20 per cent.
He says that insight into this phenomenon could be gained by comparing the experience of Irish immigrants to Britain in the 1950s to that of immigrants into Ireland today.
Writing in the latest issue of the Judicial Studies Institute Journal, Judge Riordan points out that crime rates in the Republic fell to an all-time low in the late 1950s, with the daily prison population below 400 in 1958.
However, he says that before the admission of Ireland to the EEC in 1973, it was not uncommon for the courts in the Republic to impose a sentence of imprisonment that which would then be suspended provided the convicted person left the jurisdiction.
"Such an approach to sentencing was tantamount to transferring Irish social problems on to neighbouring jurisdictions such as Britain," he writes.
He quotes studies of crime in Britain at the same time which show that the contribution of the Irish to violent crime in London rose from 9.7 per cent to 12.2 per cent, with Irish-born prisoners accounting for 12 per cent of the prison population in England, Wales and Scotland, though only 2 per cent of the population was Irish-born.
While the reasons for this were complex, they included the fact that young Irish emigrants away from home were freed from the constraining influence of family and neighbours; the influence of religious or clerical control was stronger in Ireland; the use of alcohol was a major factor in criminal offending; housing conditions were very poor; the higher wages in Britain bought a new-found wealth and disposable income.
He pointed out that recent Polish crime figures show a significant drop.
He quoted the chief prosecutor of Krakow, Piotr Kosmaty, who said that the fall in crime was not due primarily to the fall in population due to emigration, but to the type of people that were emigrating.
In Lithuania, the first year of EU memebership saw a 2.5 drop in the crime rate, compared with the previous year, which saw an 8.8 per cent increase.
Jusfw Riordan says that the number of immigrants now appearing before the courts pose new challenges. The first is that of translation, without which the rights of an accused person with limited English would be infringed.
The use of translation slowed the whole process down and removed the relative spontaneity normal in the District Courts.
Another issue was the reluctance of many immigrants to participate fully in the process, especially with regard to pleas. "There appears to be a marked reluctance to plead guilty to offences which in the event are very easily proven and conclusively so," Judge Riordan writes.