By One Nation’s economic forum. Our Aussie Economist

Queensland has a youth crime problem. And even the ABC has acknowledged this.

“Griffith University Emeritus Professor Ross Homel said the state was experiencing a crime surge that had to be addressed.” – Youth crime debate in the wake of Emma Lovell stabbing a 'political death spiral', expert says “New figures released today by the [Australian] Productivity Commission reveal more than half of youth offenders released from supervision were re-sentenced for new offences within 12 months of their release.” – Queensland tops nation for child detention and youth repeat offenders, Productivity Commission data reveals.

Book our latest CRIME FORUM event on Bribie Island here:

But the ABC predictably pivots to their preferred narrative that the bigger problem is youth punishment.

“Queenslanders spend $162 million every year on youth detention; that’s more than $1,800 per child every day.” – Queensland tops nation. “In 2020, the Queensland Productivity Commission recommended overhauling the criminal justice system. [At the margin, the costs of imprisonment are likely to outweigh the benefits, with increasing imprisonment working to reduce community safety over time.].” – Youth crime debate

Thus, ABC offers solutions that give ‘lip service’ to being ‘tougher on crime’ but also promote being ‘softer on crime’.

“Responses must enable the offender to acknowledge their behaviour, take responsibility, and make amends with victims. But responses must also address the circumstances that led young people to offend — including…intergenerational disadvantage and systemic racism.” – Queensland tops the nation.

“Focused deterrence involves respected authority figures that can sit down and talk turkey with these young offenders…through respectful discussion with them[.].” – Youth crime debate However, to be fair, there is some ‘fire’ to go with that ‘smoke’. Exhibit A below is from the Australian Productivity Commission’s 2021 research paper on Australia's Prison Dilemma.

“The imprisonment rate has more than doubled in Australia since the mid-1980s and peaked in 2018 was higher than at any point since 1899. … Similar trends are evident over the past 20 years in all states and territories.”

Unlike the ABC, the PC takes a more holistic approach to crime costs and punishment benefits.

“Prison reduces crime by removing high-risk individuals from the community and by deterring some individuals from committing a crime in the first place. … The benefits of prison are typically measured as the expected dollar value of harm prevented when an additional offender is sentenced to prison. … Some of the costs and benefits of an additional prison sentence for specific offence types can be estimated by combining measures of the costs of crime with estimates of the crime-reducing effects of prison, average sentence lengths by crime type and prison costs.” See Exhibit B below.

Both ABC and PC overlook one highly successful but politically incorrect solution. And it is not just successful in reducing crime but also in reducing costs. That is Broken Windows.

“Broken Windows policing receives credit—rightly—for being part of the crime turnaround that saved New York and other cities. [It] argued that tolerating too much local disorder created a climate in which criminal behaviour, including serious crimes, would become more likely since criminals would sense that public norms and vigilance were weak. In practice, this meant that police should crack down on so-called low-level offences.” – Manhattan Institute.

“[This and other] policing strategies helped New York City reduced annual murder numbers from 2,245 in 1990 to 292 in 2017 — and from 93 annual fatal police shootings in 1971 to just six a half-century later. At the same time, city jail and New York State prison populations have also seen their numbers more than halved.” – Manhattan Institute See Exhibit C below.

Source B: https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/prison-dilemma

Source C1: https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-980c5b692f5a6003c45e76ec8416cb9f Source C2: https://manhattan.institute/article/why-nyc-crime-policy-makers-are-now-ignoring-data