The phenomenon of (youth) crime in Alice Springs is deeply embedded, of course, in Australia’s colonial past and the declaration of Terra Nullius. That Terra Nullius was a fallacy was proven in the famous Mabo case. But just as the Jogee case, which is discussed in the context of complicity laws later, did not prevent over-criminalisation in cases of complicity (which is relevant in cases of gang/ group behaviour), Mabo did not change our views of moral responsibility when it comes to the Aboriginal offenders who make up 84 per cent of the Northern Territory prison populations. Youth detention centres often even contain 100% Aboriginal offenders.
Numerous studies that have compared harsh prisons and ‘humane prisons’ have found overwhelming evidence that humane prisons work much better to reduce recidivism. Once it had been established that harsher punishment was ineffective, it should have fallen out of
favour. Instead, in the years following the publication of these studies, the number of harsh punishments in the Northern Territory went up.
There are many reasons for what is now called a “youth crime crisis”, among them a lack of better treatment options for offenders, the increasing rates and seriousness of youth crime and the rate of re-offending.
However, to a large degree it is because we are attached to the idea that we are all endowed with a solid central self that possesses free will. The result is that we keep trying to fix the wrong things – even when that means ignoring the science. Meanwhile, the costs of crime and incarceration have never been so high. The perception of crime in the community brings about renewed calls for vigilante action. Trust in the justice system has plummeted. Fed-up citizens are arming themselves with paint guns, baseball bats, pitbull terriers, and security cameras.
We need a fresh approach to offending by children and young adults – a new way forward. For decades now, we have all suffered the consequences of measures that have manifestly proven ineffective. The details of Dylan Voller’s story are specific to the Northern Territory justice system and are still fresh in our minds.
While crime rates are going down in many parts of the world and in Australia as a whole, in the Northern Territory they are not. Recidivism rates in the Northern Territory are among the highest in the world.
Free will and the law
The public and many community leaders are quick to blame crime on the “bad character” of the offender, as if offenders chose their behaviour consciously and freely and then put it into effect, making them blameworthy and punishable. But it is quite obvious that there is no freedom to choose when it comes to the family we grow up in, the neighbourhoods we live in as a child, the abuse or disadvantage we experience, our genetic make-up, and the schools we attend or do not attend. Most readers of this book will have been relatively privileged, and / or lucky. This is not to deny that they may also have worked hard to get where they are. But it is worth asking ourselves,
If I had grown up in a chaotic environmen
t where alcohol and drugs were rife; where I didn’t know where I would sleep from one night to the next; where my role models obtained what they wanted by stealing it; where no-one showed me how to work or provided guidance and stability and consistency; where my schooling was fragmented; and even the food I ate lac
ked some of the nutrients that we know are necessary for young brains to develop – where would I be now?
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