ABSTRACT
The survey upon which this book is based shows very clearly that there are more than the ‘imagined’ two communities of Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. This is not to underestimate the significance of religious and politicai differences in constructing people’s attitudes to crime, policing and the other issues considered in this book. As Anderson (1991) has argued, the ways in which communities are ‘imagined’ may be at least as important as their material reality. What we have attempted to do here is to offer a more substantial account of a range of communities, differentiated in various ways according to class, religion, locale and other factors. Each of these communities, and the individuals within them, have a diverse range of experiences and attitudes to crime and policing as well as to a whole range of other related issues.
