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Tough on crime populism not as popular any more

By Anthony Kelly - posted Thursday, 2 November 2006


Victims of crime in the UK have been asked for their views on what cuts crime for the first time this year. An extensive survey has found that, against all expectations, victims of crime do not think prison reduces crime. Eight out of ten victims think that more constructive activities for young people in the community and better supervision by parents would be effective in stopping re-offending. Seven out of ten victims also want to see more treatment programs in the community for offenders suffering from mental health problems, and for drug addicts, to tackle the causes of crime. This challenges many pre-conceived ideas that victims around the world always want heavy penalties such as prison.

Young people around the world always tend to cop most of the blame when it come to law and order electioneering. A combination of media attention on youth offending and the ease at which politicians can highlight fears has created the public image of a society ruled by youth gangs.

However, campaigns for youth crime prevention rather than tougher penalties are growing in strength in the US. A new body called Fight Crime: Invest in Kids involves 3,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, other law enforcement leaders and victims of crime, now campaigns in ten states across the US for high quality early education programs, prevention of child abuse and neglect, after-school programs for children and teens, and interventions to get troubled kids back on track as effective alternatives to the previous “lock ‘em up” policies.

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Even in Britain it seems that the tide has turned against the once popular ASBOs or Anti Social Behaviour Orders introduced in 1998.

ASBOs can ban any individual (including young people over ten years of age) both from carrying out specific acts, such as playing loud music, or wearing a baseball cap backwards and from entering certain geographical areas such a shopping centre or an entire suburb. They last a minimum of two years, but can be imposed for longer.

ASBOs have been used to ban activity that is not in itself criminal, such as begging, prostitution, being drunk, using abusive language, protesting or sleeping rough. Non-compliance of an antisocial order can ultimately lead to a prison sentence.

In the first few years, ASBO’s faced steadfast resistance from local councils, housing workers and landlords who at first were repelled by their punitiveness and had to be further enforced to use them by the Anti-Social Behaviour Act.

The British Institute for Brain Injured Children (the BIBIC) now estimates that a third of all ASBOs have been given to children or young people with learning difficulties, ADHD, or other behavioural problems. In the light of high breach rates and questioning from constituents about whether ASBO’s actually improve anything, numerous councils and London boroughs have announced plans to review their use of ASBO’s.

Professor Rod Morgan, the government-appointed youth justice "tsar" responsible for problem children, recently said that ASBO’s have been responsible for "demonising" a whole section of British youth due to “a misplaced hysteria over teenage crime.” Despite this, ASBO’s or something very similar are still on the policy agenda of several Australian parties seeking the “tough on youth crime” vote.

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Ironically, the high level of petty street crime in the UK that prompted the ASBO’s many saw as a result of 20 years of Thatcherite economic restructuring, social neglect and law and order policies.

There is a certain easy logic to law and order politics. But this logic demands that parties come up with increasingly harsh punishments at each election which can only be justified on the basis that crime and violence are worsening, which it isn’t. Community fears are continually fuelled to meet the political need for more punitive measures. And once the law and order genie is out of the bottle it can be hard to put back.

In Australia, and particularly in Victoria, we would like to think that we are smarter than all this. And yet Victoria’s prison population has increased by 55 per cent in the past decade, on the back of longer and increasingly custodial sentencing by our courts. Women, Indigenous Australians and people with a mental illness have made up the bulk of this increase.

So, as the election campaign heats up in Victoria with the weather, let’s see which way the tide of popular opinion on law and order populism turns.

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About the Author

Anthony Kelly is the Policy Officer for the Federation of Community Legal Centre (Vic). The Federation of Community Legal Centres is part of a coalition of Victorian community, church and welfare groups coming together as a Smart Justice campaign to widen the debate about criminal Justice issues in the lead-up to the Victorian Election. For more information go to www.smartjustice.org.au.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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