More than 80 per cent of burglaries, muggings and thefts from cars in Dublin which lead to charges are carried out by drug abusers, according to new research. A study carried out for the Garda in the Dublin area has shown a high proportion of certain crimes are carried out by abusers of "hard" drugs such as heroin, while they are far less involved in other types of crime.
The study, the results of which are expected to be published by the Garda authorities in the coming months, was the first effort by the force to analyse the type, as well as the extent, of crimes committed by drug addicts in the city.
Anecdotal evidence had led to conclusions that a high proportion of crime in the city, other than drugs supply and possession offences, was drug-related. But last year the Assistant Garda Commissioner for Dublin, Mr Tom King, directed that a proper analysis be carried out to provide a basis for policing policy. The results of the study are expected to strengthen the argument of the Garda authorities that while the force can respond to crime, significantly reducing it will also depend on the level of resources committed to drug treatment programmes. A team of academics was given access to internal Garda reports on crime in the Dublin area, which accounts for almost 60 per cent of all crime in the State. The researchers analysed the Garda forms on each crime completed by officers in city Garda stations. They studied the C1 forms, which note the first complaint or report of a crime, and the C2 forms completed when a crime is solved or "detected", and a person is facing charges.
The names of the offenders on forms completed in the year to the end of last August were compared with a list of known "hard" drug abusers. The study showed that the abusers were responsible for 85 per cent of detected aggravated burglaries - those carried out using a weapon. They were also responsible for more than 80 per cent of detected theft from unattended cars, detected ordinary burglaries and detected muggings. Drug abusers were also arrested for 78 per cent of detected armed robberies and 82 per cent of detected pick-pocketing offences.
However abusers were only responsible for half the detected shoplifting offences. They were less likely to commit assaults, and were responsible for only 27 per cent of detected sexual offences. In their final report the researchers are expected to warn against using the level of detected crime to draw conclusions about trends in crime levels. Drug abusers are often known to gardai, and are therefore more likely to be charged if the victim of the crime has been able to provide a good description.
Drug abusers - desperate for cash to buy drugs - are also more likely to take greater risks when committing an offence and are therefore more likely to be caught.
There were 100,785 indictable, or serious, offences in the State last year, of which 58 per cent were in the Dublin Metropolitan Area. The overall total was 1.7 per cent lower than the 1995 figure.