Family dysfunction contributing to rising crime: Judge
Ireland’s most senior judge, Justice Ronan Keane, has expressed concern about the country’s worsening juvenile crime situation.
He said the absence of fathers from many children’s lives is a major contributing factor.
Mr Justice Keane, who has served as a judge for 25 years, is due to retire in a matter of months.
In an interview with today’s Sunday Tribune, he said dysfunction within families and the absence of a settled male figure is contributing to lawlessness.
In the same interview he also expressed the opinion that flexibility for judges to sentence murderers on a case-by-case basis was preferable to mandatory sentencing.
His comments come at a time when the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell is insisting that convicted murderers spend a minimum of 12 years in jail.
