Political calls to crack down on crime are echoing in our media ahead of the upcoming election - not for the first time. Two seasoned journalists showed this was part of a pattern in a report on crime coverage which recommended new approaches. It was commissioned five years ago - but never saw the light of day.

This article somewhat misses the point about why people are so concerned about crime, in my view. We have recently had a number of high profile, very public, violent crimes in the last few months. Dairy robberies, ram raids, shootings in the middle of the CBD, motorists being beaten by dirt bikers.

It’s honestly unhelpful and insensitive to say “statistically speaking” when people are seeing this happen all around them.

The Wellington CBD, for example, is definitely less safe than a few years ago, with people getting aggressive with you for no reason. We also had a violent robbery of a jeweller’s shop quite recently as well.

    • @Rangelus
      7•11 months ago

      Thank you for that.

      I have re-read your original article, and I think it’s point is that the way crime is reported on does not match the reality of the situation, and that the ‘tough on crime/soft on crime’ rhetoric currently in the news cycle is not new and has nothing to do with actual crime rates. To this i agree.

      As to the recent crime rates, they are overall trending downwards. However, as the article you linked pointed out, certain types of crime are on the rise. I would say it is important to try and understand why this is the case, and address the underlying causes, rather than increasing sentences or other harsher punishments. My reasoning is that we have been on the right track with our current approach, so we should not throw out the rehabilitation mindset just because it feels good to punish criminals more harshly.