RETHINKING CRIME AND PUNISHMENT What Works? Murray Short 2012

W HAT I WILL COVER Tough or soft on crime? Current trends in crime and sentencing The purpose of sentences Effectiveness of sentences; belief and reality Addressing the causes Inequality, crime and imprisonment

T OUGH OR SOFT ON CRIME An unhelpful characterisation Need to be effective on crime Need for evidenced based policy and practice Reduced crime reduces victimisation – this must surely be everyone’s goal

C URRENT T RENDS Number of people convicted over the past 20 years Offences Sentences Imprisonment Reconviction and re-imprisonment over a 5-year period

N UMBER OF P EOPLE C ONVICTED 1990 TO 2010 Source: Statistics NZ, Criminal Conviction and Sentencing Statistics, 2010

P EOPLE C ONVICTED BY O FFENCE C ATEGORY Source: Statistics NZ, Criminal Conviction and Sentencing Statistics, 2010

P EOPLE C ONVICTED : M OST S ERIOUS S ENTENCE Source: Statistics NZ, Criminal Conviction and Sentencing Statistics, 2010

C ONVICTED O FFENDERS : P RISON S ENTENCES Source: Statistics NZ, Criminal Conviction and Sentencing Statistics, 2010

R ELEASED P RISONERS : R ECONVICTION AND R E - IMPRISONMENT R ATES BY A GE Department of Corrections, Reconviction patterns of released prisoners: A 60-months follow up analysis, 2009

R E - IMPRISONMENT R ATE BY T IME TO F IRST P ROVED R E - OFFENCE Department of Corrections, Reconviction patterns of released prisoners: A 60-months follow up analysis, 2009

R ECONVICTION RATE BY TIME TO FIRST PROVED RE - OFFENCE : A LL COMMUNITY SENTENCES Department of Corrections, Reconviction patterns of offenders managed in the community: A 60-months follow up analysis, 2009

T HE P URPOSE OF SENTENCES Punishment Retribution Denunciation Deterrence – individual and general Rehabilitation Restoration Containment Prevention of re-offending

E FFECTIVENESS OF SENTENCES : BELIEF AND REALITY Punishment, retribution, denunciation - yes Containment – yes and essential for protection of community Rehabilitation, restoration – limited Preventing re-offending – very limited Belief - just like bringing up children Reality – the children that won’t be brought up! Sentences, like punishment lose their sting We need other approaches as well – “prevention is better than cure”

A DDRESSING THE CAUSES Nigel Latta is convinced “It (the Dunedin study) clearly shows at age three you can identify the children most likely to be in jail by age 26 on the basis of a 30-minute behavioural test. And we know without any doubt that early intervention is how you have an impact on those families.” New Zealand Listener, February , p 20

I NEQUALITY, CRIME AND IMPRISONMENT Emerging evidence of links between income inequality and crime, including many of the “drivers” “The impact of inequality on violence is even better established and accepted than the other effects of inequality that we discuss in this book...” Wilkinson, Richard and Kate Pickett; The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. Penguin Group, Great Britain, 2009.

H OW MUCH RICHER ARE THE RICHEST 20% THAN THE POOREST 20%? Source: Wilkinson & Pickett, The Spirit Level, 2009

H EALTH AND S OCIAL P ROBLEMS ARE W ORSE IN M ORE U NEQUAL C OUNTRIES Index of: Life expectancy Math & Literacy Infant mortality Homicides Imprisonment Teenage births Trust Obesity Mental illness – incl. drug & alcohol addiction Social mobility Source: Wilkinson & Pickett, The Spirit Level 2009

C HILD W ELL - BEING IS B ETTER IN M ORE E QUAL R ICH C OUNTRIES Source: Wilkinson & Pickett, The Spirit Level, 2009

C ONCLUSION A more balanced approach to crime and punishment that invests more resource in addressing the causes. For more information: