Organised crime-related homicide is a relatively new category of crime not discernible in the Republic before the 1990s, according to a report published by the Department of Justice and Law Reform.
Over the past decade it has come to present a considerable challenge to law-enforcement agencies.
"Such homicide is more often than not carried out by a group rather than a single perpetrator," said Dr Enda Dooley, author of the report, Homicide in Ireland 1992 to 1996.
Crime-related homicides were generally carried out by "strangers" and very few resulted in convictions, said Dr Dooley, the Department's director of prison medical services.
Of the 15 cases he studied there were only three convictions: "That's not surprising. If you plan a murder well and are assisted by `cohorts' you are less likely to be caught than you might be in an impulsive event outside a pub."
The report is a follow-up to a previous study covering the period 1972 to 1991, published by the Department in 1995.
It reiterates Dr Dooley's earlier description of "typical" homicide as involving young men and occurring at night "in the context of significant alcohol consumption".
Such events are often motivated by some form of argument and generally there is "little pre-planning", the report says. Overall detection rates are high.
While the proportion of female victims reached a peak of 40 per cent in 1996, figures for subsequent years indicate that this has dropped significantly. Homicide perpetrated by women differs from that carried out by males in that it is more often related to domestic factors or some form of domestic disorder.
"Compared to figures for the previous 20-year period, there has been a fall in the proportion of elderly victims and also in the proportion of cases associated with some form of mental disorder in the perpetrator," the report notes.