{"id":7653,"date":"2014-08-04T14:03:17","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T04:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/?p=7653"},"modified":"2014-08-04T14:03:17","modified_gmt":"2014-08-04T04:03:17","slug":"address-causes-of-crime-not-just-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/?p=7653","title":{"rendered":"Address causes of crime, not just consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Davies-Kildea<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"bendigo<\/a>
Bendigo Prison by Tim Gillin, flickr cc<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the past decade, rates of imprisonment in Victoria have risen by 21.5 per cent, with almost half of this occurring in the past two years. As a result of these increases, the last two State budgets have set aside more than $800 million to increase the capacity of our prisons. Given that our current system already costs around $100,000 per prisoner every year, the extra 2,500 beds on the way are going to make substantial impacts on future Victorian budgets.<\/p>\n

In case you thought we were suffering from a massive crime wave, Police statistics actually show a 12 per cent drop in recorded offences over the same period. It would be convenient to conclude that offences dropped because these imprisonment trends were an effective deterrent, but in fact the opposite is true. The only time recorded offences showed a small increase over the last decade has been after<\/em> the introduction of harsher sentencing policies.<\/p>\n

The reality seems to be that there\u2019s less correlation than you\u2019d expect between rates of crime and rates of imprisonment. The recent increases in incarceration are the result of \u2018tough on crime\u2019 policies designed to make us all feel safe. A reasonable goal. We all deserve to feel safe in our homes and in the communities in which we live. But does \u2018tough on crime\u2019 really work?<\/p>\n

As far as I can see, there is a few key issues: increasingly harsh sentencing strategies are a solution at the wrong end of the problem \u2013 they take effect after crimes have already been committed, instead of focusing on the causes of criminality or crime prevention. Imprisonment is also an incredibly expensive option, costing up to 10 times more than other community corrections alternatives. But worst of all, the evidence shows that not only does imprisonment not act as an effective deterrent, it increases<\/em> the likelihood of reoffending.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s much about the Victorian Justice system of which we can be proud. Victoria has much lower per-capita rates of imprisonment than other Australian states. We\u2019ve seen success with innovative ventures such as the Neighbourhood Justice Centre in Collingwood and the Court Integrated Services Program (CISP). There\u2019s also a range of good proactive partnerships happening between police and the community sector, such as the SupportLink project and community safety initiatives in the CBD.<\/p>\n

We can and should celebrate these things. Without them, the cost of correctional services would continue to skyrocket, and our State budgets would be under much greater pressure than they are today, with reduced opportunity to help those who need it and increased money forced into \u2018too late\u2019 systems.<\/p>\n

All the more reason for us not to become complacent about the trends we\u2019ve been seeing lately in the growth of prison numbers.<\/p>\n

\u2018Tough on crime\u2019 approaches are popular in election years. But this year, let\u2019s ask for more than that. Why not invest in a system that addresses the causes and not just the consequences of crime, for a safe and fair community?<\/p>\n

Captain Jason Davies-Kildea is the Manager of The Salvation Army Victoria Social Programme and Policy Unit (VSPPU)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Davies-Kildea Over the past decade, rates of imprisonment in Victoria have risen by 21.5 per cent, with almost half of this occurring in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[36,46,55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7655,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7653\/revisions\/7655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}