It is probably the most repeated and heard political quote of the past decade, but ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’, has become one of the hallmark phrases defining New Labour. Tony Blair’s all important conference speech in 1994, which uttered those infamous words, had set a benchmark by which Labour’s fight against crime would be measured. After 12 years in power, considerable progress has been made. However, recently the world expert on crime reduction, Professor Irwin Waller, said despite Britain’s successes in law enforcement and criminal justice, they were failing in their actions to prevent crime in the first place. Tackling the roots of criminality is a chronic problem that Britain has so far been unable to remedy.
Public engagement and activism is the key to cutting crime across all boards. Most of us have experienced moments in our life when we saw or witnessed behaviour that was unpleasant, unacceptable, or simply wrong. And in many of those instances we have decided that it was not worth reporting or seeking help. The disrespectful goons that play their music to a violently loud level on public transport, or ugly graffiti scribbled all over a building on the corner of a street are just such examples. We hate it when this happens. Their selfish behaviour is unacceptable and disturbs everyone’s peace and environment. However, more often than not we ignore it. We resign ourselves to accepting that it simply isn’t worth making a fuss about it.
We prefer avoiding direct confrontation with the individual or raising it with the relevant authorities. The trouble of making an official complaint and our nervousness in confronting random strangers all prevent us from addressing this behaviour, and indeed preventing it. This kind of situation is repeated on a daily basis and in a variety of different forms. It can range from ignoring and shutting out your concerns about local graffiti to intimidation in your local neighbourhood. Even the state of the roads could be a major gripe for you that always go unreported. Society very often finds itself shying away from confronting this unacceptable behaviour. The fuss and bother of engaging with it all puts many off.
What we must then do is simplify the process of reporting these minor, but not inconsequential incidents. The easier we make it for people to inform relevant authorities about this type of behaviour in society, the stronger our fight against the roots of crime will be. A possible solution is to create a crime reporting forum, where anonymous data and information sent in by the public would be geographically mapped according to location. Text messages, emails, and personal accounts from the general public would provide the basis for such a site. Public authorities would be able to see and observe the unofficial and anonymous information being forwarded in. Last year, a site providing data on official crime statistics was established, allowing the public to find out how safe their area is. If we had a forum allowing people to express their social concerns and feelings about local behaviour, our understanding of the roots of criminality would be drastically enhanced. A new source of low-level information could prove invaluable in helping to identify criminal patterns and correlations.
As most of the incidents logged will not be illegal, the site acts as an information magnet. The data gathered will allow the authorities to identify more clearly the roots of crime and potential starting points for criminality. With this insight they will be in a better position to target their action and support. For instance, if a particular bus route has a problem with rowdy children, and several members of the public express their concerns via the forum, the police will be able to identify this route as a problem area. But if such behaviour is left unchecked or unreported, the minor anti-social behaviour of the culprits could turn into something more serious. Acquiring low-level information and acting upon it is the key to serious preventative crime fighting. As this forum will be publicly accessible, councillors, local politicians, and indeed the general public as a whole will be able to assess the concerns and information provided by the local populace and hold the relevant authorities to check.
Anonymity counts for so much in crime prevention. People have a natural instinct to speak up when they see something unacceptable. But human nature also dictates we experience fear and apprehension in those circumstances, and very often it over powers the will to act. A no hassle, easy to do, and fully discreet reporting forum will give people the confidence to act. And acting upon ones concerns is exactly what is required in order to fight back against those who seek to inflict harm and hurt. A lot of the unacceptable behaviour we see in our day to day lives fuels the spread of more serious and violent criminality. If we can galvanise the public to take a more active approach in crime prevention, and then purposefully act on their information, we will not only be tackling the causes of crime, but crime in general. That is the New Labour dream, so let’s make it happen.