It's The Kids That Matter
Thursday 2 Sep 2004
Stephen Franks - Speeches - Crime & Justice
Address to the People's Choice Forum on Crime; Nathan Homestead, Manurewa
I'm delighted to be among the election candidates who recognize just how important criminal justice is.
It's not just a matter for national politicians in Wellington, or for police control from Wellington. Whether we are
safe, secure and can justifiably trust our neighbours has more effect on how we feel about our city, our suburbs and our
homes than any of the things that local government politicians usually argue about.
It is right for councillors to represent Manukau's disgust with the Government's attitude to crime.
In many cities around the world, the police, judges, prosecutors and even prison managers have to respond to local
priorities and local needs. In New Zealand, we have a single national police force, court system and prison system.
Therefore, politicians safely ensconced in Wellington can scoff at the concerns of ordinary people. Their response to
Norm Withers' referendum shows that they believe voters have short memories. They think voters will forget their
criminal justice worries in national elections and vote for whoever promises the most spending of taxpayers' money.
In fact, the knowledge that we are not safe in our homes - and that mad and bad people are secretly returned to our
communities long before their sentences are up - changes the way we all live.
Traffic gridlock will go when we know we are safe from criminals
If the Labour Government dared do the research, it would find that public transport is not used - primarily because of
security fears. What woman wants to risk what Kylie Jones suffered in the few hundred metres between the bus stop and
her home at dusk? What man wants to sit in a bus shelter wondering whether the three guys shambling toward him just want
to catch a bus or instead want to pick a fight?
You can see how fears by parents for their children affects Auckland's traffic gridlock. Just note the difference
during school holidays, when parents are not having to drive kids to and from school. In an earlier generation, those
kids would have been walking or cycling. Manukau has the additional problem that comes with having a youthful
population.
Youth crime
The Government doesn't even know how much youth crime there is. It tends to refer to police apprehension figures. Those
figures vary, according to how the police classify their contacts with kids. Police say they catch between 36,000 and
40,000 per year. Of those, around 2,000 will be formally processed through the Youth Court. There will be around 7,000
family group conferences - but that does not mean 7,000 kids, because many family group conferences will involve kids
who have previously had that procedure.
Today, a new Justice Ministry report has been released. It says:
"A large proportion of offending by young people is not being entered into [the computer] and for offences that are
being entered, the Youth Justice fields are often not being filled in correctly or at all. This project has highlighted
a very large under-recording of offences and other youth related data"
Even the incomplete data is shattering. It says that 14-16 year-olds alone recorded close to 34,000 offences requiring
police intervention last year.
What to do about it?
The reasons for this crime wave are not mysterious - except to the Labour politicians and elite officials. They think
that if we are just nice enough to criminals for long enough, they will decide to be nice back.
Research shows that criminals are gamblers. Uncertainty encourages them. They think they can beat the odds. Speed and
certainty of punishment are more important than longer or harsher punishment. This is even more important for young
people than for adults.
The message must be simple. Here's what ACT says: we want to work with local councillors who share our commonsense.
People's Choice is showing today it understands this.
Target Entry Level Crime More Than Headline Crime The primary change should be in Youth Justice. It's too late once
they have a life pattern of offending.
· Reduce criminal responsibility to age 10 for homicide, and 12 for all other offences.
· Give adult sentences for adult crimes, but ensure they are served in youth facilities away from career criminals.
· Hold young people responsible for law breaking, as well as the adults who facilitate offences. They should know when
buying cigarettes or alcohol, or being found drunk, or being a prostitute is unlawful.
· Restore non-association orders as a routine and strictly enforced consequence of offending, to break up gangs and
make bad company a burden.
· End Family Court involvement to show crime is taken seriously.
· Allow family group conferencing only for initial offences, so that it is seen as a second chance, not a soft touch.
· End the charade of family group conferencing when offenders have no responsible family members.
· End name and record suppression for guilty young people and their families, to cancel the message that youth
offending does not really matter. Shame is the first deterrent to offending in healthy societies.
· Hold parents responsible for readily preventable child offending.
· Protect parents, clubs, schools and employers who set behaviour standards from being pilloried by the courts in
hindsight for trivial breaches of process.
· Pay more than lip service to restorative justice by making outcome agreements enforceable and authorise probation
officers to supervise performance.
· Legitimise police diversion/detention and tough love programmes for first offenders as an alternative to ordinary
court enforcement.
The Goal
I look forward to the day when Manukau residents know they are again in one of the safest cities in the world, when
they can sensibly trust their neighbours, when kids routinely walk or bike to school again, and the main reason why kids
choose not to be nasty pests to their community, is not fear of police attention. It is the wish to be well regarded in
their neighbourhoods, and not to be a disgrace to their parents.
ENDS