The McCartney killing has highlighted republican intimidation and violence within their own communities but "punishment" beatings among loylaists are less high-profile because of their lower level of political representation.
In Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital, Brian Fisher, a consultant in emergency medicine, sees about two to three "punishment"-style attacks a week - carried out by republican and loyalist paramilitaries.
Police figures show there were about 300 such attacks in 2003/4 and 179 in the 10 months to January 2005. In 1993, the year before the first paramilitary ceasefires, there were 126.
"For the last few years, the most common injury has been beatings," Mr Fisher said.
"Recently there's also been a tendency to shoot people through the hands". The punishment is known locally as a "Padre Pio" - after an Italian Catholic priest who had stigmata on his hands.
In one particularly violent attack a few weeks ago, a man in his early twenties was brought to the hospital with bullet wounds to his hands, ankles and knees.
Such attacks rarely come to court. Witness are intimidated into silence and talking to the police is seen as betrayal. But silence from London and Dublin has also aggravated the problem.
"London and Dublin, right up to close to Christmas of this year, were still turning a blind eye to extensive criminality," said Liam Kennedy, author of a report into punishment beatings.
"I think there was a real sense of betrayal on the part of the governments," he said adding that the McCartney murder reflected a changing attitude to paramilitaries within the community.
But he cautioned that without an explicit commitment from the IRA to end all violence and more concrete action from Britain and Ireland , crime and bloody punishment would not end.
"I wouldn't necessarily assume we're into a new era. It may be a turning point, but whether it's a permanent turning point remains to be seen."