Dr Paul O'Mahony's is one of the few considered voices which have been raised on the crime issue. Yesterday, in a Lenten Talk in Dublin he was sharply critical of the role of the media in the debate, describing them - jointly with politicians - as "vested interests" which had driven the "recent hysteria located somewhere between reality and fantasy".
There is no gain saying a core of truth in the suggestion that sections of the media will happily raise levels of public fear and apprehension without a second thought. But not all the media do so. Nor did all the media do so in reporting the wave of attacks and murders which occurred in recent times. And it is far from evident that much of the reportage did other than reflect the very real terror which was - and is - experienced both by crime victims and by a great many people who feel themselves at risk.
Ireland's recorded crime statistics are low by most international standards. But crime is an increasing fact of life in many of the towns and throughout the countryside. Academic detachment, with soothing assurances that things are a good deal worse elsewhere, are not persuasive to the many thousands of people who become victims. Sections of the media may err in exaggerating. Are they doing any more harm than some academics - Dr O'Mahony is not one of them - who would dismiss the crime problem as almost inconsequential?
The reality is that there is a worrying amount of serious crime in Ireland, most of which falls outside of the parameters of the debate which revives whenever a series of violent assaults occurs. There is serious and organised crime behind the huge drugs empires of the capital and the larger towns. There is serious white collar crime, most of which is never reported, much less detected. There are criminal organisations involved in robbery and extortion, led by men whose names are on the lips of every garda in the State but who never see the inside of a courtroom. And the criminal justice system is proving itself woefully inadequate to cope with these problems.
if the media have sins to answer for in regard to their coverage of crime, their greater offence is arguably a failure to subject criminal justice to the same analysis as other areas of State policy. Crime may not be as widespread here as elsewhere. But it is surely at this point - while it is within somewhat manageable proportions - that the correct remedial measures ought to be put in place.
But even if the media were to be adjudged guilty of failure to go below the surface and to take a perspective over time, is their failure not surpassed by that of so many of the politicians who take the superficial approach while making political capital.
Talking up the crime problem is reprehensible. But talking it down to the extent that complacency once again becomes the order of the day - is also dangerous. Dr O'Mahony puts his finger on the phenomenon of the media's transitory preoccupation with issues. That is largely the nature of media and it is virtually ineluctable. A greater pity is that so few academics share Dr O'Mahony's interest in the area and that none of our universities provides fully for the study of this or related subjects.