Will impending laws reduce crime?

Our Leader in Indian Newslink Digital Edition July 1, 2024

Venkat Raman
Auckland, June 30, 2024

The New Zealand government is preparing to introduce a series of new legislative measures to tackle the deteriorating law and order situation in the country in general and in Auckland in particular, stating, ‘New Zealanders are sick of it.’

From Military-Style Academies (which are akin to boot camps) and total war on gangs to reviving the Three Strikes Law, the government is determined to implement its election pledge to make New Zealanders feel safer in their homes and public places.

War against Gangs

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said, “For too long, the gangs have felt that they are above the law, and those days are coming to an end. From November, the laws against gangs will be tougher and gang patches will be banned in public. The Police will also have the power to stop gang members congregating in public and the courts will have the authority to stop gang members from communicating. These laws will be passed in August and become operational in November. What he meant was that tougher laws are in the making.

But only time can tell if these would work.

If the experience the world over and in New Zealand during the previous National government (2008 to 2017) is any indication, our lawmakers may have to think of better measures than simply enacting laws. Experts have pointed out that the Justice system requires an overhaul and the presiding judges should be empowered to issue tougher sentences.

In her Open-Ed, Bex Silver, a graduate of the University of Auckland’s Master of Social Work programme, said that tougher laws always do not work. She has cited five myths that must be taken into account by lawmakers.

“New Zealand is ranked as the fourth safest country in the world in the Global Peace Index. It is easy to get caught up in the onslaught of crime reporting, but compared with the world around us, we are not doing too badly. Crime is a very real part of society, particularly for its victims, but it is a symptom of larger problems, rather than the problem itself. The psychology of criminal conduct tells us that the common determining factors often relate to substance addiction, family dysfunction, anti-social associates, and a history of criminal offending.

Correction by incarceration

According to Ms Silver, calling our prisons ‘correctional facilities’ is ironic because they do little to correct criminal behaviour.

“Over two-thirds of people released from prison will re-offend within three years, and this only includes reported offending; unreported recidivism will be much higher. Placing people in an environment with others who have untreated anti-social thinking exposes them to more serious offending behaviours and criminal networks,” she said.

She said there was no proof to the belief that incarceration keeps victims and the wider public safe, although she sympathises with the Sentiment.

Department of Corrections statistics highlight that the longer the sentence, the higher the likelihood of re-offending. She said that prison produces tougher criminals being released back into the community who go on to commit more serious crimes.

“Though prison may give the perception of immediate safety, in the longer term it decreases safety for victims and the community. Criminal offending does not occur in a vacuum. Individuals are part of families, gangs, neighbourhoods, and communities that could either encourage or discourage their criminal lifestyle,” she said.

Ms Silver has found that the most marginalised people in our society are also the ones who are disproportionately perpetrating crime. Incarcerated people are more likely to come from a background of poverty, homelessness and untreated mental health problems, she said.

Flaws in the US System

The United States of America is a good example of ‘too many laws, too many prisoners.’

The crime and punishment system is faulty criminologists have said. First, it puts too many people away for too long. Second, it criminalises acts that need not be criminalised. Third, it is unpredictable. Many laws, especially federal ones, are so vaguely written that people cannot easily tell whether they have broken them.

In 2021 the proportion of Americans behind bars was 531 per 100,000 population, accounting for the highest incarceration in the world. Alarmed at a surge in violent crime, voters have demanded fiercer sentences and politicians have obliged. New laws have removed from judges much of their discretion to set a sentence that takes full account of the circumstances of the offence. Since no politician wants to be tarred as soft on crime, such laws, mandating minimum sentences, are seldom softened. On the contrary, they tend to get harder.

Imprisonment in New Zealand

New Zealand has a high imprisonment rate compared to the rest of the OECD. There are about 170 people in prison per 100,000 New Zealanders, compared to the OECD average of 147.
A National Party press release issued while in opposition (2022) said that taxpayers were spending more money on prisoners, yet violent crime continues to go up.

“New Zealand taxpayers are now spending $151,000 per prisoner, per year, an increase of over $30,000 per prisoner from 2018-2019. Overall, there has been an increase of $139 million poured into the Corrections system over the period between 2018-2019 and 2020-2021, despite fewer prisoners. At the same time, there has been a steep decline in the number of prisoners accessing rehabilitation services. Prisoners accessing alcohol and drug programmes alone has dropped from 6311 in 2015-2016 to 1065 in 2019-2020, a decrease greater than the drop in prisoner numbers. More money is being spent, but we are getting worse outcomes,” the Party’s then Corrections spokesman Simon O’Connor said.

“Nobody should be afraid walking down Queen Street (in Auckland CBD) or go to work fearing there will be a ramraid and no town should close down its local school for a day because a bunch of gang members have rolled into the main street. I am sick of it and so are Kiwis,” Mr Luxon said on June 23, revealing the shape of laws to come.

Whether these new statutes will yield the desired results needs to be seen.