Dr. Sharon Lambert:

What the research tells us is that people who are least at risk of experiencing victimisation are the ones who are most frightened of crime. The people who are most likely to be victimised are the least frightened. I travelled through places today to get here where there are congregations of people who are psychologically unwell. They are in places where they will not receive supports. For example, outside a train station is not where people will get support for psychological difficulties. I see that members of the public are frightened by those people. However, the reality is that those people who are very unwell are at high risk of being assaulted or murdered today. Some of them will be dead by Christmas. It might be due to an overdose or as a result of being victimised. It is a reality that we are frightened, but people who have a family member who is very unwell and people who have ever known anyone who was substance dependent might be less frightened because they can see the human behind that person and know that this is an uncomfortable behaviour to see, but behind it is someone's son, brother or husband. However, I accept that for the public it is a bit frightening.

One of the things I have felt has been needed for some time is some kind of public health campaign that challenges the stigma about people who are depressed or anxious. People who are involved in substance dependence are ending up in the criminal justice system. They are the people who look a little bit scary to members of the public, so having access to treatment services and mental health resources would reduce how they are when they are out in public and make them not look as disregulated as they do. People see them and say "That person is scary". It is easy for me to say, because I am a psychologist, but when I see it I recognise that people are emotionally disregulated. Their fight or flight response system is activated. I understand that, but people who do not know that will just think it is a scary person.

One thing that is interesting is the visibility of people with lived experience of victimisation and offending. A good example is "The Two Norries" podcast. There were two young men from the northside of Cork - they will be delighted I said "young" - who both have experience of the criminal justice system. It challenged a lot of people. I know that because we did a study on it. Many people got to see the face of someone who had come through recovery from mental health and addiction issues. They both have been incarcerated several times. There was a face. We could see in the data we collected that people said it changed some of their biases and that when they saw people on the street who were very unwell they imagined they had the potential to be one of these men who had come out the other end. One thing that could be done is a public health campaign about addiction being a mental health issue and people sometimes being very unwell.