CRIME. What’s the cause, what’s the solution?

Growing up as a kid in the 1960’s certainly allowed for a lot more freedom than it does today.  Mind you I grew up in the Cariboo, and not the city of Vancouver where I was born.  Even in Vancouver though at that time we still had the freedom of a couple of blocks from home before there would be trouble.  Today’s saying of, “I want to be able to see you when I look out”, still had not been born.

In Williams Lake where my parents moved when I was ten, we had the run of the entire community for miles.  Down to the creek below McKenzie Avenue that ran out of the lake … into the woods next to the old grassy strip that had been the airport to built forts … across the highway to hike up Fox Mountain (really not much more than a hill) … and biking down to the lake for a day of swimming.

There was a lot more freedom in those days – and I guess safety as well.  I don’t recall hearing about cases like Robert Pickton … the bullying and murder of young teens like Reena Virk in 1997 … child pornography on the internet (mind you there was no internet back then) … and about teachers like Robert Noyes who prayed on young children.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying those kind of things didn’t happen.  Even in the Cariboo we had the still unsolved murder of 16 year old Colleen McMillan.  She had last been seen hitch-hiking near Lac La Hache in August of 1974 – a month later her body was found.  What I am saying however is that I don’t believe cases like the ones mentioned above happened to anywhere near the same degree as they do now. 

And so what is the cause – and what is the solution?

Perhaps we do need to start where we always should though, and that’s at the beginning.  How many kids these days have chores or even small jobs where they can earn a few dollars -- the simple things where we first learn responsibility and the value of a dollar?  Remember mowing lawns, baby-sitting, shoveling snow, delivering newspapers. 

It seems there are fewer and fewer kids these days that do that.  Why – I have no idea -- BUT we aren’t doing our kids any favors by just handing over large sums of money to them so they can buy whatever they want – or simply buying them expensive items like cel-phones, I-Pads, laptops, or whatever.   How can they learn anything when life if just one big Monopoly game with play money that has no real value.

And there’s always the tried and true ‘natural and logical consequences’; now there’s a short phrase we don’t hear that often anymore, but maybe we should.  When some one first starts to get in trouble let them know there will actually be consequences.  Pocket a small item from a store and guess what, you get to broom the parking lot on the weekend.  Vandalize and break the window in some ones home – you get to mow their lawn for the next month – things like that.

Responsibility for actions …and they start lighter for small infractions when kids are young.  Once they get older, and the infractions grown larger to petty crime, it would then seem the lesson to be learned should get harder.  Do we need to explore work camps??? Perhaps we should.

Then we come to more serious crime -- and then we need to decide why we are incarcerating some one.  Is it as punishment for the crime, because if that’s that case then most punishment is a simple slap on the wrist? 

If some one goes to jail though, what is the sense of afterwards sending them back into the community if they haven’t had some form of rehabilitation?  Do they need to get an education or learn a trade?  Up until 2002 for example, the community Clearwater, in the North Thompson, was home to the Bear Creek Correctional Center which held 60 inmates.  As I understand it this was a minimum-security facility which also had a small inmate-run sawmill. 

Why do we not have these smaller facilities with some form of trade or learning facility?  Recently, there were even calls from the community of Clearwater to re-open the correctional centre but that was turned down.  That makes no sense to me as it would have served multiple purposes … not the least of which was work and employment for residents in the community.

I believe I said this the other day, but it fits here as well so I’m going to use it again.  Children are one third of our population, and all of our future.  Our young people need to have meaningful small jobs to learn responsibility and the value of a dollar – rather than simply handing them everything they want.

If some one is going to move up to a career of petty crime, then we need to have some sort of natural consequences that fit the crime, and consequences that are a deterrent.

And if they wish to continue and move up to major crime, then we need to have jail terms that fit the crime.  I believe however that we will still need to have a system in place to try and rehabilitate these people … IF that’s what they desire.

The BC Conservative Party is now in the middle of a policy review, and the issue of crime and crime prevention is one that will receive a lot of discussion, and well it should.  There is no simple solution; however we should expect thoughtful ideas from all who would wish to govern us, including the Liberals and New Democrats, on how to deal with crime and crime prevention.   

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops … and those are the thoughts of one conservative.