Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime?
By BubblyIan
@BubblyIan (750)
October 27, 2008 5:22am CST
In 1997 Tony Blair campaigned for the election with a number of slogans - this was one of them. It convinced me to vote for him then. Do you believe that Labour have failed on one or both of these? And for non-UK readers, do you think simply locking people up and throwing away the key is the solution to ever-increasing crime rates? Or should we be looking at prevention as well? What do you think are the causes of crime?
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2 responses
@chameleonsdream (1230)
• United States
27 Oct 08
I think that any policy that focuses on changing an end result without addressing the root cause is doomed to failure. I don't know your politics well enough to comment on whether Labour has failed, but I adamantly believe that any anti-crime policy that doesn't address the roots of crime (and that includes taking out the BIG criminals instead of picking off foot soldiers) will only result in overcrowded prisons. Punishment is seldom a deterrent to crime - education, on the other hand, does reduce the incidence of crime. Thanks for posting a thoughtful discussion on something other than the current US elections. I hope it gets the attention it deserves.
2 people like this
@BubblyIan (750)
•
27 Oct 08
Hi there
Thanks for responding! yes - I do try to raise interesting and thought-provoking issues - anything to distract from the 'big event'. When that is over the REAL issues still remain to be resolved.
In UK for example, 90% of prisoners have little or no relationship with their father, 50% have been through the 'care' system (adopted or fostered) and 70% reoffend on release. The common factor appears to me to be the presence or absence of the male role model, normally the father. If governments reqrded and encouraged fathers for staying involved with their children after separation rather than punished and persecuted them, then perhaps more would be able to stay involved. If the government rewarded and encouraged families for staying together rather than rewarding and encouraging the main carer (normally the mother) for breaking up, then children would be more likely to grow up with both parents involved.
If parents received training in being parents either at school or between conception and birth then maybe the parents would be better able to bring up their children to be law-abiding contributing well balanced members of society... What do you think?
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