Harsher penalties don’t make us safer
When it comes to dealing with law and order challenges, the problem for any incumbent government is that facts and logic often give way to the stronger emotions of fear and anger.
Newstalk ZB talkback caller Craig summed it up last Tuesday.
Upon seeing news footage of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern defending the Government’s record on crime, Craig became angry and wanted to throw something at the TV.
Craig believes Labour is soft on crime and you got the feeling no amount of evidence to the contrary would change his mind.
Like me, anyone who has been a victim of crime can understand Craig’s feelings.
In 2019, I was mugged. The experience temporarily transformed me from a social liberal to an advocate of a criminal justice system modelled on Game of Thrones.
After landing at 5am from a South American work trip, my taxi driver and I were ambushed outside my home as I paid the fare.
Initially reluctant to hand over my wallet due to the admin involved in replacing the contents, talk of a firearm being produced quickly focused my mind.
My quick-thinking driver realised what was happening and pressed his knee against his UHF radio button, meaning the ordeal was broadcast to the entire Auckland Co-op taxi fleet.
Police arrived soon after, but the assailants were gone.
The experience completely skewed my perception of the level of crime in my community. It suddenly felt a lot more present than before.
Although this type of offence was decreasing in 2019, it didn’t feel that way to me.
A similar picture exists today. While overall crime in New Zealand is decreasing, we are currently experiencing a spike in retail crime including highly visible ram raids.
As with crime waves in the past, pressure goes on the Government to do something.
Centre-left governments are
susceptible in moments like these, due to their more progressive stance on law and order being mischaracterised as “soft”.
The frustration for Labour is that the reality tells a different story. Not only has Labour kept broadly the same policy settings as the last National administration, but several areas have also actually been strengthened.
Since 2017, the Government has beefed up the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act, resulting in $1.6 billion being removed from the illicit economy.
The gang disruption programme Operation Tauwhiro has seized 1700 firearms and 52kg of meth.
There are 1600 more front-line police officers today than five years ago.
Dog teams and cybercrime units have been given more resources.
The list goes on.
While Labour’s most liberal supporters won’t like to hear it, on paper Ardern is arguably tougher on crime than John Key.
Of course, none of this helps dairy owners feel any safer, especially after the appalling killing of dairy worker Janak Patel.
The easy political choice is to give in to calls for more punitive penalties for these sorts of offences.
However, the evidence shows that there is a limit to the effectiveness of ever-harsher deterrents.
Even the most severe deterrent of them all — the death penalty — has not resulted in lower murder rates in the US. States with the death penalty have no better homicide rates than states without.
Criminologists will tell you that almost all crime is committed by individuals who believe they won’t get caught.
When you believe you’re going to get away with something, the penalty becomes a bit irrelevant.
While harsher penalties might work politically, they don’t make our communities any safer.
The right path for Labour, therefore, has to be to keep focussing on what actually works.
That means supporting the police and giving them the tools and resources they need to do their job.
It means a laser-like focus on the causes of crime.
And it means using the full resources of the state to wrap support around vulnerable young people and steer them away from crime.
While it’s unlikely to convince talkback callers like Craig, it’s the right thing to do.
[Being mugged]
temporarily transformed me from a social liberal to an advocate of a
criminal justice system modelled on Game of Thrones.