Revisit “Tough on Crime, Tough on the Causes of Crime” slogan says Rethinking

“The disappointing crime statistics results for 2009, suggests that the government should think more carefully about the slogan, “Tough on Crime, Tough on the Causes of Crime”, says Kim Workman. Director of Rethinking Crime and Punishment. “In our view, if politicians truly understood that message and acted on it, there would be a major change in approach.

The slogan, or even “being smarter about crime ” succinctly captures the complexity of the crime problem, and thus the complexity of effective responses to crime. It implies that any financial investment in crime prevention strategy should be backed by good evidence of its effectiveness, something distinctly lacking in a simple call for just being “tough”.

By even raising the issue of the causes of crime, the proposal opens the door to inventing new ways to deal with those causes. The search for causes of crime logically begins with criminal justice policy itself. Two out of every three new criminal convictions in New Zealand are reconvictions of previously convicted offenders. At the least, this suggests a missed opportunity for more effective and preventive sentencing practices when offenders are convicted. At the worst, it suggests that the criminal justice system itself is a cause of crime – a cause on which government should be tough.”

“Many aspects of criminal justice have been blamed for causing crime among convicted criminals. Inadequate or ineffective rehabilitation programmes, lack of drug treatment, insufficient funding for prisoner reintegration , and other specific policies have all been nominated as causes. These are areas that require closer government attention.”

“Others have suggested something far more fundamental: the way in which society and government thinks about the actual and potential connections between victims, criminals and society. This view blames our failure to see how interdependent all members of our society are, with many law-abiding people being criminals, victims or both at some point in our lives.”

ENDS

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