For Green Party candidate Meredith Akuhata-Brown the answer is simple: "I believe law and order in this nation has got lost in a whole lot of legislation and policy".
In this Local Focus video, she explains her experiences seeing the reactions of youth scapegoated by law and order rhetoric.
National Party candidate Tania Tapsell says we need to be tough on crime but reoffending rates are disappointing.
"If people have done the crime, yes, they should do the time but afterwards, are they being supported to be rehabilitated back into the community?"
Labour's Kiri Allan talks about how Labour is trying to do just that, with prison numbers decreasing under the Labour government.
"The settings aren't right in our criminal justice system - we're incarcerating too many people," she said.
Also standing in the East Coast electorate:
• Jennie Brown for Advance NZ
• Veronica King for ONE
• Helena Nickerson for New Conservative
• Blake Webb for Act
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MetService forecasts warm, wet Christmas for Bay of Plenty, rain easing by Dec 27.