A very interesting perspective piece in the Herald this morning on the recent debate surrounding meeting the real needs of victims of crime. I am keen for feedback as I have been doing some serious thinking about this since I posted on the Chief Justice’s speech which raised this very issue.
I dont honestly know what it will take to get us to address the drivers of crime, to reduce crime based on working and workable programmes, to overcome some of the unbased myths around crime, punishment and victims.
The article in the Herald is a good one, have a read of the comments though, from the likes of RossNZ, who regurgitate the myths about law and order and genuinely believe they are based in fact.
I dont accept we can build a criminal justice system around the victims of violent crime. I exclude rape etc because the majority of those victims never even enter the criminal justice system, and few of their perpetrators remain in it. I want to reduce violent crime, I want to help victims, but less people are murdered in NZ than die in workplace accidents… we need perspective
I wonder whn our news bulletins will start being a roll call of household and workplace accidents/deaths rather than car accidents and murder… same resultm grieving distraught families.
“Twelve New Zealanders are dying each week from accidents in their homes and alcohol is a significant factor, according to the latest statistics from the Accident Compensation Corporation.
Released as part of Safety NZ Week, the statistics show there were 621 deaths in homes last year due to accidents, averaging just under 12 per week.”
Crime bad, victims sad
I believe we need a carrot and stick situation
for example for crimes of a certain nature we bring in the death penelty (we set it up ourselves properly we dont just use the USAs) with the money saved in this area we put towards propr rehabilition for prisoners
like education, work training…even make work schemes etc etc
Great to see you getting to grips with this Lianne. Research indicates that crime and therefore the number of victims increase with increasing inequality in a society. Being a victim of crime, whether that crime is reported, prosecuted and taken to court or not can be extremely traumatic, but reactions to the perpertrators by those vicitms are complex and relate not only to what the crime is, but any pre-exisiting relationship between the two (or more) and individual beliefs and attitudes to retribution and/or forgiveness. As a society I agree we need to look at what prison achieves if anything and where nations have lower crime or lower re-offending rates, what do they do differently. The death penalty in the USA is accompanied by increasing prison populations and burgeoning crime rate – a clear indication that though some families of victims feel supported by the death penalty that it is not acting to prevent more violent crime.
We need to look at why society accepts some crimes (ie not intervening in family violence when we see/hear it) and not others and how we can prevent blameless babies growing up to becoming criminals who create victims.
I think the number of people responding to this post says it all. Thanks Tracey & Emma for your thoughts and you too sweet potato! One day people will understand what kinds of interventions would truly make them safe. I hope it happens in my lifetime!
Aw Lianne – you’re nice
Keep plugging away Lianne. Even Simon Power famously said in 2006 (while in Opposition) he was prepared to do what works and take it on the chin when accused of being “soft on crime”. Seems he has changed his mind.
Chris, if you think that a criminal stops before committing a crime and ponders the chance of getting caught or the sentence if they do, you are sorely misinformed.
Most murders still retain a “passion” or spur of the moment, trigger type aspect, making “deterrent” sentences/punishment irrelevant.
The Death Penalty is the ultimate admission of defeat and the admission that while we claim to be an advanced and/or civilised society we are not.
People dont want to think of anything other than their pat quick fix myths, such as death penalty, and hard labour. They dont want to consider why they dont work, because they will have to consider an alternative. Shallow thinking on law and order is a sure sign of a society that while ridiculously focused on law and order, are largely unaffected by it in their day to day lives.
The biggest crime I have been involved in was sexual abuse as a child by a very close family friend. No boogieman, no south auckland stereotype, no deterrent, no help, no charge. So please dont suggest I speak from an ivory tower or cloud nine existence.
Chris, if you really care about your lock em up and throw away their life, then where is your action, and outrage, rather than shallow rhetoric about the incredibly high number of crimes committed against women by men which are simply not reported, or when reported result in low conviction rates (because juries accpet ridiculous defences).
Violent crime is a predominantly male problem, take a peek at the number of women who murder and rape, and compare it with the number of men who murder and rape. BUT notwithstanding this, its largely/mainly women working in programmes to prevent this stuff… For some reason men prefer revenge and bluster both in committing crimes and denouncing them. Strange huh?