Programs must tackle causes of crime

The circumstances behind the tragic death of Elijah Doughty are an all too familiar scenario for many disadvantaged youth in Australia. Arguably the absence of appropriate programs and services to address the high rates of juvenile offending in Boulder were a contributing factor in Elijah’s death – involving an allegedly stolen motorbike and ute.

According to Elijah’s grandfather, theft of motorcycles in Boulder is widespread and this has long caused tensions in the town. “It’s been brewing for a while now and these people in four-wheel-drives have been chasing kids for a while,” he was cited as saying in an ABC radio interview.

Broadly speaking, two factors influence people’s tendency to commit crime: environmental factors such as the neighbourhood they live in, and psychological factors such as mental illness — though many psychological conditions are in turn affected by the community environment.

The absence of programs to address the aimlessness and boredom of young people in Boulder appears to have played a part in the high rates of juvenile offending in the town. Elijah’s grandfather argues that both Indigenous and non-Indigenous children of Boulder are stealing the bikes because they have nothing better to do.

Earlier this year there were also newspaper reports of a juvenile crime wave during the summer months in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. With business owners complaining of ‘persistent harassment, shoplifting and vandalism by unsupervised children,’ some as young as 10 years old. The juvenile offending has been so bad, the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Community High School has allegedly suspended more than 150 students since the start of the 2016 school year — including Elijah Doughty.

According to Elijah’s relatives, he had attended school infrequently since being suspended earlier in the year. Many young people in Boulder are also reportedly taking drugs, with some children even using their lunch money to buy ice. These environmental factors, coupled with high rates of crime and imprisonment — Elijah’s own mother is currently in prison, are likely to have had a detrimental impact on young people’s behaviour.

Once incarceration rates reach a certain level in a community, there is a ‘tipping point’ where imprisonment fails to reduce offending and instead contributes to it. When every family and individual in a community knows someone in prison, offending and imprisonment become part of the socialisation process.

In these circumstances, imprisonment is no longer the fate of a few criminal individuals but part of the fabric of the community. As imprisonment becomes ‘normalised,’ the prospect of prison loses much of its deterrent effect, becoming instead a ‘fact of life’ or even — in some communities — a ‘rite of passage.’

The widespread and ongoing theft of motorcycles in Boulder without any meaningful intervention by authorities indicates an apathy bordering on negligence.  To counteract terrible tragedies like this from occurring again, there needs to be greater investment into youth offending prevention programs.

Measures should involve a carrot and stick approach, not just stick, like the suggestion made by Kalgoorlie-Boulder mayor John Bowler earlier this year for magistrates to cane young offenders, to deter them from “a life of crime.”

To reduce juvenile crime, programs need to address the underlying reason why young people are offending in the first place – such as boredom and a lack of appropriate role models.

There is an urgent need for more preventative programs in communities like Boulder. But according to Kalgoorlie MP Wendy Duncan, productive and positive programs that will make a difference to juvenile offending rates are not being offered in an effective way. She says one of the key problems is lack of engagement with Aboriginal people about what programs and services they need.

This example echoes the findings of my report, which outlined that because there was no strategic framework linking initiatives to the needs of Aboriginal people, there were gaps in service delivery as well as waste.

For example, while there are communities crying out for suicide prevention initiatives in the Kimberly, $17.8 million in federal funds earmarked for Indigenous suicide prevention programs has not been used.  Conversely, in other states, suicide prevention programs have been introduced in communities with no history of suicide.

It is vital that the Western Australian government’s new blueprint for reform, ‘Resilient families, strong communities’ — provides the services and programs that communities need. As the appalling circumstances behind Elijah Doughty’s death illustrate, children’s lives depend on it.

Sara Hudson is a Research Fellow and Manager of the Indigenous Research Program at the Centre for Independent Studies. Her report ‘Mapping the Indigenous program and funding maze’ was released by the Centre for Independent Studies last week.