Tough on the causes of crime by Susan Grimsdell
What makes a youth offender? I can never understand how people can vote for someone who doesn’t ever spell out the detail of what he (in this case) is going to do. Tama Potaka has just won the by-election in Hamilton West and all I’ve heard so far is that he is going to be “tough” on crime. What specifically does that mean? Shariah law perhaps? Nobody wants to be the victim of crime. But surely to reduce crime, we have to first understand what causes it? My son, and probably your… Read More
Paved with good intentions by Trevor Plumbly
Crime and nourishment Administering justice has been a disaster since the days of Cain and Abel. After God failed to sort it, we’ve been struggling with it ever since. These days, the threat of the fiery furnace or more earthly punishment doesn’t seem to work that well; every time someone rattles out the latest crime statistics, an army of apologists strike up a salvo of mitigation ranging from poverty to post colonisation trauma. Quite frankly I’m getting a bit sick of it: poverty of some sort or other, has always been… Read More
He was a good boy by Trevor Plumbly
Maternal mitigation When the stuff hits the legal fan, very few mothers, it seems, have rotten kids. Regardless of what some of their offspring stoop to, mum frequently steps up to the plate to defend or offer excuses. It’s a time honoured thing and where minor misdemeanours are concerned, perfectly acceptable, but when it gets applied to serial offenders, I wonder if it’s time to regard crocodile tears as just that. At charitable best, they may well be the expression of years of hopelessness or the final acknowledgement of a long ignored… Read More
“In the Bonds of Love We Meet”??? or Fair Go Part 2 by Trevor Plumbly
Like most major cities, Auckland is a bit of a cultural and ethnic melting pot, made more so in recent years by immigrants from Asia, Africa, UK and greater Europe, all arriving in the hopes of finding a better or safer existence. At the risk of being accused of stereotyping, I honestly feel that those who arrive from Asian countries are usually prepared to work longer and harder than a lot of others, including ‘native’ New Zealanders; in short, most seem to regard hard work as an access road rather than a… Read More
Youth Crime – Dealing with the Half-Pint Pirates by Trevor Plumbly
Countless Agencies in the Field of Youth Crime To my jaundiced eye, it seems that there must be more people fighting juvenile crime than there are juvenile criminals to go round. From politicians to parents and the liquorice all-sorts of agencies in between, it’s astonishing to me that an army of this size can’t solve a problem that a clip round the ear might have sorted out a few years ago. But parents, even if they could be bothered, aren’t allowed to do that anymore. Contribution of Consumerism to Juvenile Crime I… Read More
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