Cutting crime with long-term solutions
It is possible to cut crime by changing policies that create crime in the first place:
- Attempting to prohibit widely used recreational drugs
- Not providing adequate educational opportunities for poor families
- Having a patriarchal society that creates the impression men own their wives
- Lack of affordable housing
- Encouraging gambling addiction.
(On a phone? Suggest view in landscape)
| Cause | Crime | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Criminal supply of drugs | Violence & corruption | Tightly regulated government supply to registered users of ‘clean’, lower-risk drugs. (Cannabis, MDMA, maybe others). Prescribed clean heroin for existing heroin addicts. Careful prescription of psychedelics where appropriate for mental illnesses such as PTSD.* |
| Criminal supply of tobacco | Violence, Arson, Assaults. | Only allow on-line sale of tobacco products. Increase availability of nicotine patches etc. Cut Medicare benefits for citizens found to be using tobacco instead. |
| Inadequate gun controls | Terrorism. Homicide. | Much tighter restriction on gun imports. Exemptions for registered livestock farmers, etc. Federal gun registration. |
| Religious and Racial Extremism | Terrorism. Homicide. | Fines for promoting extremist views (rather than martyr-creating imprisonment). Government should be strongly secular and not advocate for any “official” religion. Higher tax on unmoderated social media platforms and companies that advertise on them. |
| Perceived “ownership” of women. | Domestic violence, homicide and assault. | Women to keep their original birth surname on official documents (Passports, ATO, licences, etc.). Female children to take their mother’s surname.* |
| Gambling | Fraud, theft, domestic violence, money laundering. | Ban advertising of gambling. No cash or crypto. All bank cards to block gambling payments by default. Ban pokies?? |
| Lack of education | Street crime | Bonuses for at-risk kids for passing school assessments. No passports, TFN, Licences, etc. if no school results. Early release for prisoners who study. |
| Alcoholism | Street crime, domestic violence | Volumetric taxing of alcohol (federal). Higher licence fees for high-alcohol drinks (state). |
| Homelessness | Street crime | Expanded public housing.* |
| Poor sex and relationship education | Rape | Mandatory on-line relationship education with emphasis on how to enjoy consensual sex rather than just the mechanics. “Need to bypass ‘just say no’ religious schools. “Friendship first” approach might work (?) No funding for single-sex schools. |
| Crypto | Money laundering, corruption, payment of ransoms | Ban the sale, purchase, promotion or advertising of crypto. Make it illegal to hold any crypto. All crypto to be seized by the ATO. |
| Cybercrime | Theft, extortion | Ban crypto. Ban all payment of ransoms. Mandate cybersecurity measures for businesses. Consider making ISP’s bundle internet access with approved antivirus software. Ban companies considering illegally obtained material when hiring. |
| Failure to rehabilitate prisoners | All of the above | Strongly encourage participation in rehab for inmates with early release for progress or extra time for failure. Repeat offenders may have to be confined indefinitely in ‘secure towns’. |
(*Excluding Conservative Electorates – see One Country, Two Systems)
Day-to-day policing
State Governments are responsible for day-to-day law and order issues.
In general the Federal Government should focus on more long-term, structural reforms.
One exception would be to stake out likely mafia extortion targets with armed federal police agents to discourage the spate of fire bombings that we are currently seeing. This could extend to setting up fake businesses to attract mafia attention.
Below are some ideas to reduce offending to more manageable levels.
References
- Each prisoner costs $150,000 per annum (IPA)
- QLD police lockup conditions (Guardian)
- Support for cannabis legalisation at 80% (AIHW)
- The failure of drug prohibition and the future of drug law reform in Australia (PubMed)
- ‘War on drugs has failed, completely and utterly’: UN human rights chief
- Drug prohibition is fuelling the overdose crisis: Regulating drugs is the way out (Conversation)
- Patriarchy and power: how socialisation underpins abusive behaviour (Guardian)
- The Role of Patriarchy in Domestic Violence (Focus for Health)
- Strong link between gambling expenditure and crime, new study finds (Connections)