More police may mean more people arrested, and more convictions, but it doesn’t prevent victims from being created, writes Aaron Hendry. Photo / Mark Mitchell, File
More police may mean more people arrested, and more convictions, but it doesn’t prevent victims from being created, writes Aaron Hendry. Photo / Mark Mitchell, File
Opinion by Aaron Hendry
OPINION:
Over the past 12 months there has been growing concern about crime, and increasing calls for the Government to do more to prevent crime from occurring.
These calls have been largely driven by concerns regarding the increase and visibility of ram raids. For some, the reality of young peoplebeing involved in this form of crime has been particularly shocking.
A common public response to concerns around crime, specifically youth crime, is to call for our political leaders to increase policing. It pays to point out that this focus on increased policing as a solution to crime within our communities is often intensified leading up to election year.
It also should be mentioned that a perception of youth crime on the increase is not backed up by the data. The reality is much more positive, with youth crime steadily trending down for several years now.
More police won’t stop shops being ram raided, they won’t return that precious family item that was stolen and destroyed, or heal the trauma of someone who has suffered an assault.
If we actually care about victims and want to end the cycle of victimisation, then we need to get serious about crime prevention. That means a serious look at the drivers of crime and responding appropriately.
It is not an opinion to say that poverty, disabilities, mental illness, trauma, and increasing inequality and social exclusion play a role in driving some people to become engaged in crime. This is all well documented, and largely accepted.
Eradicating poverty, ensuring whānau have access to safe and stable housing, building a society where everyone has access to health care and mental health services, is all crime prevention.
It’s important we respond to the evidence, demanding that our politicians take crime prevention seriously and instead of investing further in policing, focus on addressing these larger structural issues.
I get that these issues are complex and cannot be solved in one election cycle. If we are going to actually see change in our communities, then we are going to have to all work together, regardless of what political colours we wear.
It’s election year and that means most parties will be tempted to play the “I’ll buy more police than the other guy” game. But, buying more police won’t solve the challenges our community is facing. If we want safer communities, we need to invest in our communities.
We need to invest in community solutions, in ending poverty, in ensuring safe and stable housing for whānau, in making health care and mental health services accessible for all of us.
We also need our elected representatives to work together, to find common ground, to collaborate on policy that can last longer than a three-year term. There are preventative solutions that fit within that shared space our politicians collectively stand on.
For example, we know that for a group of young people who end up repeatedly offending, one key barrier for change is extreme poverty and the reality that they are experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity.
Legislation to prevent young people from being transitioned from the care and justice system into homelessness would ensure that the state took seriously its responsibilities for young people in their care, and planned for - and provided - housing solutions for these young people.
Another solution is looking at how we resource our communities to practice early intervention.
We know that if a young person has had a report of concern made about them before the age of 5, they are more likely to become involved in crime as a child, and again as a teen.
We also know that our communities often know the young people who will become involved in crime, long before they do.
So, the question then is how does our Government empower communities, invest in iwi, strengthen the resources we have within our communities to respond appropriately?
Aaron Hendry. Photo / Dean Purcell, File
There are solutions to these questions, but it takes decisive leadership, and collaboration across the house, to refuse to make crime prevention a political pinata and instead get serious about solutions.
If we want to see significant change, then we need to demonstrate to our elected representatives that this issue is too important to us, too serious, to be partisan.
We need to demand real solutions. Solutions that don’t wait for victims to be created before we act. Solutions that take seriously the drivers of crime, and deal with the root causes, rather than waiting for people to be hurt before we do something.
Preventing crime requires evidence-based responses, not hysteria-filled reactions.
If we want change, we need to lay the rhetoric aside, and get a whole lot smarter.
Aaron Hendry is a youth development worker, rangatahi advocate, and social justice commentator.
