TY - JOUR
T1 - 'See No Evil, Hear No Evil'
T2 - Insidious Paramilitary Violence in Northern Ireland
AU - Knox, Colin
N1 - Funding Information:
* School of Public Policy, Economics & Law, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. This research was funded under the ESRC Violence Research Project (Grant L133251003). The author wishes to acknowledge the research assistance of Dermot Feenan and Rachel Monaghan with aspects of the fieldwork and helpful comments on the paper by Brice Dickson, Patricia Mallon and the external referees.
PY - 2002/12
Y1 - 2002/12
N2 - Northern Ireland has been variously described as having an 'imperfect peace' in which 'acceptable levels of violence' persist. Despite the endorsement of the main political parties to the principles of 'democracy and non-violence'enshrined in the Belfast Agreement, an insidious and brutalizing form of paramilitary violence continues within communities. The government has opted to 'see no evil, hear no evil' given what is at stake in the wider political process. According to this approach, one must accept certain violent excesses in the interest of moving forward politically. This, however, creates both conceptual and practical problems around the issue of violence in Northern Ireland. By conceding that paramilitaries 'police ' the informal criminal justice system in their areas with political and, in most cases, legal impunity, the government, de facto, defines what is 'an acceptable level of violence'. This paper considers the nature and extent of ongoing paramilitary violence, how it has become enmeshed in the negotiated settlement and the consequences of this politicization of violence.
AB - Northern Ireland has been variously described as having an 'imperfect peace' in which 'acceptable levels of violence' persist. Despite the endorsement of the main political parties to the principles of 'democracy and non-violence'enshrined in the Belfast Agreement, an insidious and brutalizing form of paramilitary violence continues within communities. The government has opted to 'see no evil, hear no evil' given what is at stake in the wider political process. According to this approach, one must accept certain violent excesses in the interest of moving forward politically. This, however, creates both conceptual and practical problems around the issue of violence in Northern Ireland. By conceding that paramilitaries 'police ' the informal criminal justice system in their areas with political and, in most cases, legal impunity, the government, de facto, defines what is 'an acceptable level of violence'. This paper considers the nature and extent of ongoing paramilitary violence, how it has become enmeshed in the negotiated settlement and the consequences of this politicization of violence.
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U2 - 10.1093/bjc/42.1.164
DO - 10.1093/bjc/42.1.164
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0013167122
VL - 42
SP - 164
EP - 185
JO - British Journal of Criminology
JF - British Journal of Criminology
SN - 0007-0955
IS - 1
ER -