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LAWS2050 – Crime, Policy and Governance Lecture

Table of Contents Week 1...............................................................................................................................2

Week 1 Assessment Tasks Quizzes – 4 x 5%= 20%

(Every 3 weeks. See ilearn for dates) Based on required readings ************ Research essay – 40% Thursday 1 October 11.59pm Choose your own issue, apply one of the crim theories taught in this unit *********** Take home exam – 40% Short answers (short essay style). Open for 48 hours. 5-7 November. Based on all unit content Who commits crime? Who is arrested for committing crime? Who is punished for committing crime? Criminal offences/criminal record - Highly likely many of us have committed a crime at some stage of our lives. - Not all offences addressed by the police and the courts are classified as ‘criminal’ and will lead to a criminal record. Eg some traffic offences, unpaid fines etc. - A criminal record includes a list of all serious traffic offences and other offences that a person has been found guilty and convicted of in court. - Serious traffic offences include: o drink driving convictions; o dangerous or negligent driving convictions where someone is hurt and/or o convictions for driving while disqualified, suspended or cancelled. - Minor offences, such as using offensive language in public, or entering a public fountain, are summary offences that can also give you a criminal record. -

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Criminal record as a dividing line in society by foreclosing people and presenting an obstacle to rehabilitation and living a complete and worthwhile life America has a problem of mass incarceration In AUS your criminal record includes things like serious traffic offences (drink driving, dangerous or negligent driving, driving while disqualified) assault, theft, etc.

Who is arrested for crime? Burau of Statistics data - 394,466 individuals proceeded against by police. Three • • •

most common principal offences were: Acts intended to cause injury: 78,530 offenders (20%) Illicit drug offences: 77,074 offenders (20%) Public order offences: 53,560 offenders (14%).

NSW data. Proceedings by the police 2018-2019 122,001 indiviudals proceeded against by police in New South Wales

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Around a quarter (26%, 31,376) had a principal offence of acts intended to cause injury, of that 84% were for assault. 14% had a principal offence that was illicit drug related. Most of these (77%) were for possess and/or use illicit drugs. Sexual assault allegations reached the highest recorded number in the time series (2,415) increasing by 3% since the previous year. The male suspect rate was 2,688 per 100,000 males, the female suspect rate was 797 per 100,000 females. 77% of suspects were male, similar to the national data (76%).

Criminal Court Matters. Who is convicted? Australian state and territory criminal courts finalised 576,101 defendants, a decrease of 3% (16,354) from the previous year. Traffic and vehicle regulatory offences are the most common principal offence, comprising 34% (197,901) of defendants. Fines remained the most common sentence type for guilty defendants (55%, 271,517). For family and domestic violence (FDV) defendants, assault is the most common offence in, followed by breach of violence orders. • Three in four of all offenders were male (75%, 434,823) • The median age was 33 years • Most were proven guilty (86%, 497,868). NSW police quotas NSW Police officers have been given a quota to conduct more than 241,000 personal searches and strip searches. Personal searches include "frisk" style searches and strip searches The quotas were calculated on three-year averages Officers almost reached that target, performing 238,923 personal searches in that period. A quota of 223,272 searches was set for the 2018 financial year, with 238,813 searches actually performed. How • • • • o

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long does a criminal record last? Usually, for ten years after the date conviction was recorded. After 10 years, most offences become “spent convictions” A conviction is spent on completion of the relevant crime-free period. The crime-free period for adults is ten consecutive years; for children it is three consecutive years. However, certain convictions may not become spent. These include: where a prison sentence of more than 6 months has been imposed i.e serious crime. (periodic or home detention is not a prison sentence); convictions against companies and other corporate bodies; sexual offences (many of these are serious crime anyhow).

. What happens if you have a criminal record? • There certain types of employment where people with a certain criminal record may not be employed. • Some professional and occupational licensing bodies have developed licensing and registration rules because of special characteristics in their

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field, e.g. the health profession or legal profession. Such rules address the relevance of a person’s criminal record to that particular profession. All jurisdictions in Australia have made a policy decision that the protection of children is so important that the criminal records of persons working with children must be closely scrutinised. There are a number of professions and trades that seek to restrict the participation of people with a criminal record or, at the very least, examine a person’s criminal record prior to their admission, registration or licensing. In general, these would need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Also - restrictions on travel e.g. to the USA, UK and Canada.

Example from the USA Participation rate is tied to many things, including ageing population. But - is it also related to heightened criminalization and criminal record checks? At 2015: more than 1.5 million Americans were incarcerated in state and federal prisons, a figure that has quintupled since 1980. One in three U.S. adults has been arrested by age 23. Between 70 million and 100 million—or as many as one in three Americans— have some type of criminal record. 3. Why don’t people do what they are told? The conundrum • Penalties for many crimes are becoming more severe. • Detection of crime is becoming much more effective – e.g. CCTV, strip searches, overreaching legislation (terror offences) etc. • Crime rates are falling gradually . • But many people commit crime. • Many, many more people commit crime than those who are caught and those who are convicted. • Prison is fairly awful. • Having a criminal record is very disruptive. • The justice system is excruciating. • Why would a rationally-acting person commit crime? • What is it about the way we deal with crime that either deters or does not deter people from committing crime? • Can we do this better? • Why don’t people do what they are told? Dr Freud, Why don’t people do what they are told? - 1856 –1939. - Psychiatrist. - “Father” of psychoanalysis. - Hounded out of Vienna by the Nazis in 1938. - Died in London, in exile, in 1939. - Had a few things to say about why people were drawn to totalitarianism, fascism, ultra violence, the suspension of morals, violence and anti social behavior. - Seems very relevant in today’s political climate. - (also had a lot to say about sex and cocaine, but let’s leave that there). - Why people don’t do whats in their best interest Civilization and its discontents

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In the wake of the carnage of “civilization” that was WWI, and as the Nazi Party rose to power, Freud concerned with the conditions of modernity and what drives humans. Concerned with the unique modern situation of the 20th century. What should have been the most “civilized” was the most brutal and the most destructive. Far from “civilized”. Quite like social contract theorists (e.g. Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke) concerned with the tensions that come with entering a complex society (“a civilization”) In the State of Nature we are free and anarchic, but we have little protection. When we enter society (civilization) we gain protections from the state, but we trade off so much – our free spirit, our individual drives, our anarchism, perhaps our humanity, our own ability to determine morality. The tensions between being free and having to conform to civilization, is what Freud was investigating.

Civilization and its discontents • The first “cell” of civilization is the family – where we first learn about restrictions, rules, punishments and rewards. • People’s reactions to society can reflect their experiences in families as children. Family is the first society. • In families and in society, there is a tension between wanting individual freedom (I want to do what I want!) and the desire to keep the group intact (the family, the nation, the species). • Religious instructions such as the Golden Rule (treat others as you would have them treat them) do well to keep the group intact • But they ignore the other side of the problem, the desire to meet individual needs/drives. • For Freud, it is not enough to assume that social rules will be influential because they keep society stable and safe. • If we expect people to “behave” in society, we must acknowledge the tension of wanting to do what you want! This does not always sit well with the Golden Rule Freud and child development • Observing children can help us understand this tension. • Sometimes the drive to do what we want, is so strong, we pursue it even when it is bad for us. • Much crime and anti social behavior comes from drives that are not rational, or helpful. • But they are, by definition, human. • We can see this on individual level, and also mass level – why are people drawn to political movements that are not good for them? • Pretending that existing in a highly complex, highly regulated, highly rulesbased society is natural and easy for everyone, denies humanity. • It denies the fact that a great deal of people commit crime every day. • It denies the fact that we struggle to always know why we sometimes do the things we do. • The criminal justice system should not treat crime as an aberration but instead see it as predictable and common, and to be dealt with as such. What does this mean for us? This unit is about alternatives to criminal justice:

Alternatives that recognize that the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them do to you) is not clear enough – we do not always have the whole of society in front of mind, when we behave badly, or out of desperation. • Alternatives that recognize that the criminal justice system is NEVER a good enough answer for victims of crime. It is usually excruciating. It is too little too late. • Alternatives that want to recognize the humanity of both victims and offenders, for the purposes of preventing more crime. Stay tuned! •...