Emma Priest: The true tragedy of serious crime is we could stop it

Police at the scene after shopkeeper Janak Patel was fatally stabbed during an aggravated robbery of the Rose Cottage Superette in Sandringham. Photo / Hayden Wooward, File

OPINION

Reading the news articles on the very sad Rose Cottage Superette killing has been very confronting. It must be unimaginable for the family of Janak Patel.

But I am also dismayed at speculation that the killing was caused by a failure of the criminal justice system. The idea is that somehow “getting tough on crime” would solve this.

I appreciate it’s an election year coming up but I must push back on the suggestion that a sentence of life imprisonment is a soft approach. I also note that the search for the offenders lasted about three days. Criminal justice and policing in New Zealand work, but they are neither a cause nor a solution. Only people who don’t commit crimes consider penalties to be a deterrent.

It’s so much easier to see those charged with crimes as bad, cruel people deliberately causing harm. But, those who commit crimes often don’t have the luxury of alternatives. Split-second decisions, made in the moment, change lives forever.

A usually quiet street in Māngere becomes the scene of a police investigation after a hit-and-run.

Many offenders have suffered deprivation, poverty and addiction. They grow up in families who don’t have the resources to give them the opportunities that privileged children are given. Serious offenders often act out of desperation. This is not an excuse. If you have been brought up in a family where violence, gangs and crime to survive are the norm, it’s almost impossible to do things different. Family cycles repeat - good and bad.

Dr Ian Lambie, chief science adviser to the government, has proven evidence of the school-to-prison pipeline.

Early intervention is key. It is the answer. This is not controversial.

The failure to help our children and young people is the cause of serious crime. Underfunding of education and health has a direct link. Kids are born into families without sufficient resources to help them get to doctors, let alone address issues such as poor hearing, glue ear or poor eyesight, which directly cause poor educational outcomes.

Kids without food and warm beds cannot concentrate at school and get sicker, more often.

Experiencing violence and abuse at home and in state care is commonplace.

State housing puts roofs over heads but does not guarantee a better life. Photo / Tania Whyte

Add to this mental health issues, intellectual disability and being expelled from the school system, and a life in street gangs and petty crime follows. With convictions, opportunities are few.

Imagine a young man who is one of seven children. Four of his siblings are in prison. His mum raised them alone. His father returns only long enough for her to fall pregnant. She works hard to provide for her family but is not around much as a result.

This is an impossible choice.

This son struggles with reading and writing. He witnesses and experiences the violence of his father and other family members who try to step up to help. He steals school lunches because he is hungry and returns home to be disciplined by his mother.

He is expelled from primary school, and later intermediate - never to start college.

From there he is drawn into a world of street gangs, alcohol and soft drugs, enabled by no supervision and no education. He escalates to hard drugs and more serious crime. He has never held a job. He has no education. He almost certainly has a language or learning difficulty. He is in his mid-20s and facing a long prison sentence.

The cost per year to the public is more than $100,000 to imprison him. This could be any one of my clients.

Emma Priest: Early intervention is key in reducing crime.

For those who sit in judgment of those who “choose” a life of crime, ask yourself whether you are prepared to rent your property to them, or offer them a job. With criminal convictions, life is infinitely harder.

The “us and them” mentality does nothing to solve or explain how we got here.

The criminal justice system is not a solution to crime. The real question is, how are we, as a society, helping those struggling in our communities? How are our health and education systems failing to identify and help kids to prevent them from going down the pathway to a life of crime? Imagine if we spent even a small portion of the cost of the criminal justice system on prevention.

As election year approaches, I challenge opposing parties to come up with cross-party policies which are evidence-based to truly prevent crime.

What I hope comes from this is some reflection as a nation as to how we have got here.

I want the politicking to stop, no more political parties pandering to fear that sits behind military camps and longer prison sentences.

I challenge us as a community to help those who are struggling. The crime that we are seeing is a symptom of a society in crisis.

This is a tragedy for all that could have been prevented.

Emma Priest is a criminal barrister at Blackstone Chambers in Auckland and also a director on the board of Variety NZ, the children’s charity.