Pubdate: Tue, 12 Dec 2006
Source: Nelson Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Nelson Daily News
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/288
Author: Paul Willcocks
Note: The newspaper does not have an active website.

CATCHING CRIMINALS BEFORE THEY STEAL YOUR CAR

This is not stuff of science fiction, preventing crime is easier than 
you think when statistics clearly identify who commits crime. All we 
need now is a government to focus in the right areas.

What if instead of waiting for people to commit crimes, you 
identified and stopped them before they broke into your house or 
grabbed your mom's purse?

That was the premise of a Tom Cruise flick of a couple of years ago 
called Minority Report. Future police were able to identify people on 
the brink of killing a spouse or committing some other crime - don't 
ask how - and sweep in for a preventive arrest.

And it's also, minus the sci-fi, what the B.C. Progress Board is 
recommending in its report on reducing crime in the province.

Instead of focusing on hiring more police and building more jails to 
house more criminals - an approach that hasn't worked all that well 
so far - the Progress Board report says we should work harder at 
keeping people from committing crimes.

It's a good idea, one of a succession of first-rate efforts from the 
board since Premier Gordon Campbell set it up in 2001.

There's no fancy science or magic tests involved.

The report says we know what turns people into criminals. Or at least 
we know about the people who commit 90 per cent of the crimes. There 
are still the crimes of calculation, blind anger or - based on my 
brief stint as a court reporter - the extraordinarily rare and scary 
people who are just evil. But mostly we can look out into our 
communities and know who will be committing crimes in a few years.

Which means we can stop them, or at least a lot of them. The report 
from the Progress Board, a hard-headed, business-dominated group, 
recommends that approach.

The major cause of criminal activity - no surprise - is drug and 
alcohol use, the report notes. People steal to pay for both. Both 
make them stupid and unable to see the consequences of their crimes. 
Users are angrier, more violent. Suppliers - except for the Liquor 
Distribution Branch - commit crimes to protect their businesses.

About four out of five federal penitentiary inmates are substance 
abusers, the report found. Deal with that problem and crime plummets.

But, the report found, we aren't doing well.

We talk about the four-pillar approach - prevention, harm reduction, 
treatment and enforcement. But treatment isn't available across most 
of the province and there's no help to keep people sober. The report 
says the problem is especially serious outside the Lower Mainland.

Much more needs to be done, the report says: "Most of all there needs 
to be some action."

It's not just drugs. The report identifies a second - equally 
unsurprising - cause of crime. That guy shoplifting today was a 
neglected or poorly parented four-year-old in 1995. Give kids some 
help and a fair chance and they'll do OK, the report says.

But we haven't given many kids a chance.

"Clearly, existing health and social services that address childhood 
development issues are not adequate at this time," the board reports.

Little kids need help; they don't get it.

Then there are the crazy people, or, more politely, the mentally ill. 
Hospitalization is rare now. But there's not enough community support 
either. So people with mental illness end up in jail. The justice 
system has a "revolving door" just for them, the report says.

The Progress Board identifies another potential crime group that 
includes people from all of the first three categories. People living 
"impoverished and chaotic lifestyles" are prone to crime, the report notes.

These are incredibly difficult people. Think of the hardcore 
streetpeople you see. But the board's report says making an effort to 
deal with their problems and "colossal unmet needs" would pay off in 
reduced crime.

All these people have something in common besides a propensity for 
crime. They also aren't going to be deterred by more enforcement or 
tougher penalties. A mentally ill addict with fetal alcohol disorder 
doesn't calculate the odds of getting caught and punished. She leaps.

Just imagine, stopping crimes before they happen. All we have to do is try.

Footnote: The report offers three options for dealing with the drug 
trade: Legalize, or if that's not possible or practical, then spend a 
great deal on a serious 10-year effort to wipe out the trade. Or, the 
report suggests, launch the attack with legalization to follow. The 
board makes no recommendation on which course the government should choose.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine