Context Matters in Crime Prevention - Amazon S3...Crime Prevention and Communities: 3-4 Nov 2016 Fair Australia – Social Justice and the Health Gap “Social determinants of health:

Context Matters in Crime Prevention

Anna Stewart

Head, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice

I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the

land on which we are meeting and pay my respect to the

Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the

land on which we are meeting and pay my respect to the

Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Crime Prevention and Communities: 3-4 Nov 2016


Anna Stewart


Over representation of Indigenous young people in detention

Not gong to list the statistics

Not going to talk about high rates of remand

Not going to talk about breaches of the UN

Convention on the Rights of the Child

Talk about crime prevention

What works, for whom and in what

circumstances?

Community (context) is key



Colonisation

Dispossession Imprisonment


Colonisation

Dispossession

Offending

(and victimisation)

Imprisonment


Colonisation

Dispossession

Offending

(and victimisation)

Imprisonment


Colonisation

Dispossession

Offending

(and victimisation)

Imprisonment


Criminal Justice System

Imprisonment


Offending (and

victimisation)


Imprisonment


Offending (and

victimisation)


Imprisonment


Offending (and

victimisation)


Imprisonment


Offending (and

victimisation)


Imprisonment


Offending (and

victimisation)


Imprisonment

Key to reducing the overrepresentation of Indigenous

young people in detention is to reduce offending (and

victimisation).

How?

How do we know these work?


Evidence based interventions

How do we know what works?

Context dependent

How do we know for who this works?

How do we know under what circumstances it

works?

Theory based

How do we know why it works?

How do we know these work?


Evidence based interventions

How do we know what works?

Context dependent

How do we know for who this works?

How do we know under what circumstances it

works?

Theory based

How do we know why it works?

Two effective crime prevention frameworks

Situational crime prevention

Target crime opportunities rather than individuals

Crime Science

Developmental and life course criminology

Onset, persistence and desistance of offending

Target risk and protective factors

Importance of systems – family, school, community, economic and political

Early intervention

Therapeutic intervention

What works to prevent youth offending?


Situational crime prevention

Tailored to the situation (problem identification)

Increase the effort – opal fuel

Increase the risk – school designs, RBT

Reduce the rewards – car immobilizers

Remove provocations – reduce boredom

Remove excuses – control drugs and

alcohol

What works to prevent youth offending?


Developmental and life course interventions

Intervene along the life course

Risk factors for offending

Parental incarceration

Child maltreatment

Homelessness

Alcohol and substance abuse

Protective factors

School attendance, performance and

retention

Employment

Give every child the best start


Early childhood development key to health and well

being

Prevent offending (and child maltreatment, youth

suicide, mental health, academic failure)

Before birth

Before problems emerge

Life transitions

Interventions

Pre and postnatal home visits

Early family/parent programs

Preschool education

Boyer lectures – Michael Marmot


Fair Australia – Social Justice and the Health Gap

“Social determinants of health: the conditions in

which people are born, grow, live, work and age.

And, I must add, inequities in power, money and

resources that give rise to inequities in the

conditions of daily life.”

“The link between deprivation of social conditions, ill

health and crime is all too obvious in Australia”

Preventing reoffending?

Interventions informed by theory and empirical research

Matched to offenders risk of reoffending, needs and responsivity

Interventions adopting a holistic approach to target multiple and extensive

needs

Delivered in community rather than institutional settings

Involving significant others including the family and community;

Culturally appropriate

Ensure program fidelity


What works to prevent reoffending?

Family based interventions

Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care

Multi-modular interventions (case management, multisystemic)

Counseling and Mentoring programs (CBT Social Skills)

Wilderness programs (paired with therapeutic interventions)

Vocational, Education and Training (VET) programs


What doesn’t work?

Preventing reoffending

Imprisonment and detention

Zero tolerance policies

Boot campus

Shock incarceration (scared straight)

Naming and shaming

Juvenile curfews

Systemic Barriers to effective crime prevention


Punitive rather than rehabilitative

Reactive rather than proactive

Inadequate funding

Shortage of qualified and experienced

staff (high staff turnover)

Delivered on ad hoc basis and not

appropriately evaluated

Remote discrete communities

Community is everything

Covered what works, and why: but the key is under what

circumstances?

The context of the intervention is extremely important

understand the historical and cultural context to implement programs

understand the opportunity structure around crime

work with communities to implement effective interventions

Can’t just pick up a program/intervention that works in one place and

expect it to work in another place

Two additional points


Justice reinvestment

Reducing children on remand – bail

programs.

Final words – reducing overrepresentation


No ‘simple’ answer

No ‘one’ answer

No ‘immediate’ answer

No ‘magic bullet’

But there are good initiatives being implemented

Need to focus outside the criminal justice system

Need to prevent victimisation

Need to build the evidence base

Need to understand the context


Anna Stewart


Documents

Context Matters in Crime Prevention - Amazon S3...Crime Prevention and Communities: 3-4 Nov 2016 Fair Australia – Social Justice and the Health Gap “Social determinants of health: