Critiquing Tapu Misa on Three Strikes

When somebody gets a simple fact terribly wrong in the first paragraph, is it worth reading the rest of the article?

This is the challenge I faced when opening up this morning’s Herald. Tapu Misa has written a piece on Three Strikes and the causes of violent crime, in which she talks about the “65 recorded homicides” in 2009. 65 homicides is a tragic figure. Even more tragic is the real number – 134. The former is the number of murders only.

So what is to blame for this? Misa answers this with a question of her own: “Is it too simplistic or criminal-excusing namby-pambyism to point to the corresponding rise in joblessness last year?”

It’s a question one would ask only if one looks at 2009 in isolation, as Misa did. The bigger picture is much different. The unemployment figures for much of the last decade were dropping. At the same time, violent crime increased. Indeed 2007 saw the decade’s biggest jump in violent crime coincide with its lowest unemployment rate.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, California’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed – and yet violent crime continues to drop. In fact, tellingly, a fifty percent drop in violent crime has ‘coincided’ with the implementation of their Three Strikes law.

Later in her piece Misa states that “we all want our most vicious criminals locked up for as long as it takes to keep us safe”. Perhaps the editor took out the part where she said “except for me”. If Misa was sincere in this she would throw her support behind Three Strikes. The policy does precisely what she claims to want: longer sentences for repeat violent offenders. And contrary to her concerns, it still targets the “worst of the worst”. Robberies, assaults, sexual offences and (all types of) homicides are the worst violent crimes.

If employment was the magic bullet some people claim it to be, we should have seen a sharp drop in these offences from 2000. Instead, a decade of soft law and order policies from Labour has seen an abundance of violent crime and a lack of faith in the justice system.

Three Strikes addresses both problems. Our worst criminals will be punished properly, our streets will be safer, and many possible offenders will be deterred from destroying the lives of the innocent.

It’s not a magic bullet, but it will reduce violent crime. No amount of selective research and inaccurate figures will ever prove otherwise.