Sir, - Over the past few weeks I have heard and seen many debates in the media about crime. The middle of the road position, in response to the recent rash of outrages, is demanding tougher sanctions against criminals, more prison spaces and more protection and sympathy for the victims of crime.
Yet every debate I have heard has also had a strong contribution from an articulate spokesperson on behalf of the view that crime is caused by poverty and the way in which society is organised. Obviously, in this view, the solution to crime is the abolition of poverty and the reorganisation of society - presumably along socialist lines.
I accept that levels of crime will always be greater in sectors of society where people are born into poor circumstances than in the sectors where people live in better off circumstances. However, I do not accept that crime levels in some poorer areas should be anywhere near current levels, and I reject the notion that poverty is any excuse for violent crime.
Everyone has a personal responsibility to behave decently, and an absolute responsibility to avoid violence against another. This responsibility applies equally to each person, and does not individually apply in proportion to one's economic circumstances The responsibility is simply part and parcel of being fully human. To diminish this responsibility on the head of poverty, or some other ordinary circumstance, is to diminish a person's humanity.
No doubt that people who explain/excuse crime on the basis of poverty see themselves as caring. However, I find their view of the world both bleak and mechanical. I do not believe in this dreary notion that behaviour is simply the result of economic circumstance. This principle is a silly cul de sac. It neither censures bad behaviour nor praises good behaviour. There is no place in this mean scenario for the free exercise of human spirit.
Every citizen has the right to live free from the fear of being savagely beaten, raped or murdered. Obviously a sudden increase in such violent crime must be answered by a quick response to stamp it out.
Abolition of poverty is a long term goal and, desirable as it is in the longer term, putting it forward as a response to a rash of savage murders is nonsense. Innocent, decent people deserve help and reassurance now, rather than sermons telling them that they are the authors of their own misfortune for failing to ensure that our society is classless, wealthy and utopian. Yours, etc.,
Greybrook, Waterfall,
Co Cork.
