The Nation 21 July 2012
July 19th, 2012 at 8:15 pm by Kokila Patel1. The participants in Victoria University’s Friday night Justice Hot Tub debate are with us live — Defence counsel, Greg King; Sensible Sentencing’s Garth McVicar; the father of Sophie — Gil Elliott and former ACT MP Stephen Franks on whether our criminal courts deliver justice and help prevent serious crime.
2. Live from Auckland’s Sky City, Finance Minister Bill English in a q&a sessions with delegates at the National Party conference. Colin James will be commenting through this.
3. Brian Edwards and Bill Ralston will be talking about the Crewe murders and recent TV programmes and books about them.Broadcast on TV3 Saturday at 9.30 am, repeated on Sunday at 8 am with the media panel
July 19th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
But the Courts aren’t there to prevent serious crime. Crime prevention is a mixture of policing work and political justice policy. Once you begin to accept that the Courts are there to prevent serious crime then it ceases to be an impartial forum.
Vote:July 19th, 2012 at 9:17 pm
Give Lord Birkenhead my everlasting love David!
Vote:July 19th, 2012 at 9:21 pm
F E Smith
I’d accept that the Court’s role in deciding guilt or innocence shouldn’t influence crime patterns but surely the punishment aspect of sentencing must have some impact, at least in the case of premeditated offenses.
Vote:July 19th, 2012 at 9:27 pm
And we all thought that the courts were really there to maximise lawyers incomes!
What fuckwits the general public really are!
Vote:July 20th, 2012 at 12:21 am
Yes FE Smith I had a facepalm reaction to that too. What’s on next week? How good are our hospitals at preventing disease?
@nasska: The theory of deterrent sentencing is much beloved of the judges who believe their ringing condemnation and stiff sentencing will resound amongst the lower orders. If they actually looked beyond the ends of their nose, they’d realise that not only does the next idiot who gets drunk or high and commits precisely the same crime as his predecessor, but not even the original criminal is deterred from recidivism.
“Tough” sentencing would involve compulsory detox followed by constant monitoring, and back to detox at the first sign of substance abuse, as opposed to confinement in appalling conditions, about the only benefit of which is easy access to a reliable supply of cheap drugs.
Vote:July 20th, 2012 at 7:46 am
People in Wellington might also be interested in this seminar at lunchtime today:
Institute of Policy Studies, School of Government : Tom Brooking and Gabrielle Maxwell: ‘Bulls and Lambs: Bears and Lions’: Relating Trends in Murder Rates to the Broader Patterns of New Zealand History
Date: Friday, 20 July 2012
Time: 12.30-1.30pm
Venue: Rutherford House
Address: 23 Lambton Quay (northern end)
In this talk Tom Brooking will bring 40 years of researching and teaching New Zealand history, including the authorship of two general histories, to better understand the relationship between the fluctuating murder rate and other longer term trends in in New Zealand history. In attempting to add a deeper historical understanding to Gabrielle Maxwell’s detailed findings he will pay particular attention to economic, demographic, sociological and cultural trends as well as to developments in policing that Dr Maxwell has already begun to delineate.
Vote:July 20th, 2012 at 9:57 am
Mikey:it will be more bullshit from criminologists who start with a premise (prison doesnt work; unemployment causes crime; criminals are victims too) and then search for evidence to support those premises and ignore anything which doesn’t.
Yawn.
The only criminologist in the country who doesn’t operate like that is Newbold, and all the others hate and denigrate him.
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