Police Commissioner’s views on crime ‘simplistic’

Press, 5 July 1985, Page 4

Police Commissioner’s views on crime ‘simplistic’

“Somewhat frightening” Moral Majority-type views were expressed by the Commissioner of Police, Mr Thompson, in his annual report to Parliament, according to a Wellingtonbased criminologist. Mr John Lee, a lecturer at the Institute of Criminology at Victoria University of Wellington, said that it was simplistic for Mr Thompson partly to blame the rising crime rate on moral decline. “You have to ask more serious questions than those raised by the commissioner,” he said.

Mr Thompson said in the report that “numbing public apathy” towards crime and rising violent crime “painted a dismal picture.”

Many police officers found it difficult not to measure social and moral decay against the growing unpopularity of discipline in schools and at home, and the calls for even more liberal reforms, he said. He said that most experts pointed to the power of example to mould morality and character. If they were right, those set up as models in the news media and cinema were likely to be leading people in the wrong directions. Mr Lee said that Mr Thompson’s comments were understandable, but that he did not think there was a simple answer to why crime as increasing. “It appears to me that he seems to be moving towards

the Moral Majority viewpoint, which I find frightening,” said Mr Lee. “If you go back to 1900, serious crime was also a major social problem.” A question which had to be asked was whether New Zealanders were violent people. Some forms of violent behaviour, such as that practised by rugby players, appeared to be accepted, he said. Violence appeared to be “manifested” by a number of public figures, such as politicians. Another of the many issues that had to be looked at was whether people were presented with expectations they would never achieve, which led to frustration. Some people also felt that

the only way they would be noticed was by becoming aggressive. Mr Lee said that poverty and inflation could also have played a part in the rising crime rate. In addition, New Zealanders were fed with a “fairly unhealthy diet of aggression on television.” He cited programmes such as “The Professionals,” in which it was portrayed that the end justified the means. The news media were capable of whipping up fear in people, which could become aggression, said Mr Lee. The way in which Mr Thompson’s report was prepared was even aggressive, he said. It contained an undertone of violent lan-

guage and used strong adjectives such as “horrific,” “numbing,” and “ugly.” Mr Thompson said in the report that almost 57 per cent of offenders last year were aged under 20. According to Mr Lee, among the possible reasons for this predominance of young offenders are teenage alienation from society and lack of opportunity. He said that society should try to understand what was causing the serious crime. The best way to resolve the problem would be to talk about it, rather than increase police numbers and pass repressive legislation. The police needed to talk to the community about the type of policing it wanted.