Statistics Canada reports that crime rates have dropped to their lowest level in twenty-five years. The community network is elated and their spokespersons are quick to claim that this provides clear evidence of the effectiveness of community action in the area of crime prevention and rehabilitation.
“Hare-brained, not to say surreal; such a drop in the crime rate cannot be linked to a single factor nor to the actions of a single group,” you think to yourself. And you’re perfectly right. No single factor can explain criminal behaviour, and neither crime control, nor rehabilitation, compensation, prevention, nor treatment, incarceration nor any other means constitute, on their own, an appropriate social reaction to crime.
Yet, many people, be they from the field of politics, law enforcement, the media, the judiciary or ordinary citizens, would have us believe that there exists one simple solution: Get tough on crime, If you do the crime, you do the time! The direct result of that approach is imprisonment, the deprivation of liberty, and the infliction of suffering as a means of atonement for one’s offences; in short, punitive measures, which, as we have known for more than a century now, have not yielded the anticipated results in terms of lowering recidivism or ensuring public safety. To the contrary, under certain circumstances, such measures may even contribute to increasing the risk to society in the medium or long term. One needs only to consider what has happened in California over the past twenty years to observe the devastating impact of an approach based on punishment and the excessive use of imprisonment: crime and recidivism rates have never been as high, prisons are bursting at the seams, and the costs of the Criminal Justice System have reached astronomical proportions.
Let us now focus more closely on facts. Indeed, for a number of years now, fluctuations in crime statistics have tended to reflect a drop rather than an increase in crime rates, whether the proponents of the law-and-order agenda like it or not. This group seems interested only in events that have been covered extensively in the media, all the while taking advantage of the fear that is generated in the public to advance their own cause. Still, a closer look at statistics does reveal worrisome signs. For instance, while non-violent crime is down, the same cannot be said of certain categories of violent crime. Furthermore, the street-gang problem is cause for concern within many communities. On the other hand, an analysis of violent crime reveals that 6 of 10 offences fall within the minor assault category. And many crimes of violence involve an offender and a victim who know each other, a far cry from predators hiding in bushes to prey on innocent victims. That is not to say that such offences are excusable or that society needs not react to them.
Some will claim that statistics can be made to say anything. For instance, one might point to overcrowding in our provincial institutions to show that crime has risen and highlight the need to build more prisons. That way of thinking makes as much sense as a dog chasing its tail, for many factors that have nothing to do with an alleged rise in crime can contribute to prison overcrowding. As evidence, 65,461 offenders were admitted to Québec provincial institutions in 1995–1996, compared to 38,281 only in 2005–2006. Furthermore, the average population of these institutions has dropped over that same decade.
So crime rates in Canada have dropped to their lowest level in 25 years? There is certainly cause to rejoice, but we should not for such let up in our efforts to prevent crime within our communities. Certain detractors of the Criminal Justice System should have the courage to admit that the situation is not as out of control as they claim. The drop in crime rates was achieved without having to resort to minimum sentences, to increase imprisonment, to measures that further limit human rights or to more sophisticated means of control. In fact, it is during that same time frame that conditional sentences were enacted, a measure that was widely disparaged by certain groups. It is important to acknowledge that certain social phenomena, such as street gangs and the rise in violence among youth, are cause for concern within our communities. But the best way of addressing these problems is through concerted efforts in the area of primary crime prevention and, when necessary, through police, judicial and correctional interventions that build on a thorough understanding of the body of empirical criminal justice knowledge acquired over more than a century. To that end, our community-based network is more than ever committed to providing an active and positive contribution towards safer and, more importantly, healthier communities.
