Lives Less Ordinary? Crime, Communities and Policing in Northern Ireland

Abstract

This article is drawn from data collected in the Community Crime Survey conducted in Northern Ireland in 1996.1 That survey was premised on the notion that the experience of crime, victimisation, policing and related matters varied considerably across different communities in Northern Ireland. These communities were distinguished on the grounds of religious segregation/integration, socio-economic deprivation and Greater Belfast/rural divides. The authors argue that the survey findings with regard to these variances offer a critique of the homogenised and ‘averaged up’ findings of previous surveys, underline the RUC's lack of credibility in working class Catholic communities and the development of alternative strategies of policing and social control in both working class Protestant and Catholic communities. Finally they suggest that this type of survey methodology offers the potential for a more nuanced account of the significance of community in criminological discourse on Northern Ireland.