Over the past two years the authorities in Northern Ireland have noticed increasing violence in beatings by paramilitary organisations, particularly the IRA and Ulster Defence Association (UDA), which also calls itself the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF).
Typical of the new form of "punishments" is one administered by an IRA unit in the Bogside of Derry on Wednesday evening. At around 7 p.m. a gang of men forced their way into a house in Brewster Court and attacked a 19-year-old youth. They smashed his leg in several places with an iron bar and also struck him with considerable force on the arms and body.
The youth suffered severe chest injuries and one of his lungs collapsed. His recovery will take a long time and he is likely to be permanently handicapped.
This is typical of the type of injury that is being inflicted by the IRA and UDA in recent times. Police and medical sources say the paramilitaries are well aware that the type of injury inflicted by weapons such as metal bars, pickaxes, hammers and clubs - sometimes studded with nails - are significantly worse than injuries caused by hand guns.
The traditional "kneecapping", where a victim is shot in the knees or legs, rarely happens. The beatings being administered by the IRA and UDA now are designed to cripple victims permanently.
RUC sources say the beatings are being administered particularly to young people who are seen as challenging the authority of local IRA figures.
Some of the worst republican beatings are being administered in north Belfast. The local IRA commander, a man in his late 30s from Ardoyne, is said to insist on beatings that permanently cripple victims. His group was responsible for the near-fatal use of a pickaxe on a young man last month. He has suffered permanently disabling injuries.
Similar beatings are being administered by the IRA in west Belfast. According to local sources there, there is a growing sense among young car thieves and petty criminals that the IRA's authority is diminishing.
Last Sunday the "hoods", as they are known in west Belfast, stole more than a dozen cars parked around Casement GAA Park during the Ulster football semi-finals. This was interpreted locally as an explicit threat to the authority of the republicans in west Belfast.
Loyalist sources attribute the rise in punishment beatings and shootings to a different set of circumstances. They claim the violence is being administered by the UDA as part of a campaign to build up its presence in loyalist working-class areas.
The UDA has been challenging the authority of the other major loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), in several areas. As part of this campaign, the UDA has significantly stepped up the number of punishment beatings and shootings. It has also engaged in other activities, such as the threat earlier this week to shoot Catholics who attack Protestant enclaves.
UDA figures are also suspected of being heavily involved in the trafficking of cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamines. According to sources, the UDA is asserting its authority through the increased use of violence to protect its trade in drugs. There is also a difference in the type of victim in the two communities. The IRA tends to target young men who are suspected of persistent petty crime or of deliberately challenging its authority. The victims in the loyalist community tend to be older and, according to sources in that community, are often targeted because they are rivals in the drugs trade or other criminal enterprises.
However, sources in republican areas say there are increasing indications that the IRA figures are moving away from paramilitarism into both licit and illicit business enterprises. Some highly motivated republicans have moved into dissident anti-agreement groups. Others have drifted into economic activity, some of which is criminal. Social security fraud - particularly the abuse of the disability living allowance scheme - cigarette smuggling and running licensed pubs and clubs are among the activities mentioned by republican sources.