Where do you stand “On Crime”?
Until recently, there was a fairly narrow dichotomy in perception of approaches to crime; you were perceived as either “tough on crime” or “soft on crime”. It’s good to see we are charting new territory with the language we use to describe our approaches “on crime”. The “on crime” slogans and taglines are becoming more diverse, but no less politicized.
In 1997, Tony Blair and the New Labour party in Britain ushered in the era of “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”.
As early as 2007, in Canada, the leader of the Canadian New Democrat Party at the time, Jack Layton, gave a speech titled “Getting Smart on Crime“.
In 2009, California State’s top prosecutor, Kamala Harris, was running for the top job of District Attorney. She published “Smart on Crime” which formed the basis of her election platform.
Shortly after this, we launched our own Smart on Crime in Waterloo Region community plan, along with this blog.
Since then, we’ve come across several more “on crime” approaches. We’re sharing what we’ve gathered here and will add to the list as we find them.
- Smart on Crime – Recommendation for the Administration and Congress [United States] – over 40 individuals and organizations designing policy recommendations, changes and analysis for the justice system; from the very top to the very bottom
- Right on Crime [United States] – A conservative approach that advocates increased public safety while reducing corrections costs
- Smart on Crime Policy [United States] – shortly after being elected, District Attorney Kamala Harris [California], launched her Smart on Crime Transition Team and set out their areas for reform
Language is powerful and the words we use to talk about crime, crime prevention and responses to crime have a significant impact on our attitudes toward crime. Let’s use them wisely.
Have you come across other “on crime” initiatives that we don’t know about yet? What about “on crime” initiatives in other languages? We’d love to hear about them.