Mennonite Central Committee [Image]

Criminal Justice Issues

April 25, 1995

Harsher Punishment for Crime is Not the Answer

By Wayne Northey

Recent highly-publicized murders and other crimes across Canada have
resulted in renewed calls for harsher punishments for offenders from
political parties, victims groups and others. But harsher punishment such
as longer sentences, restricted or no parole and a return to capital
punishment will not lead to a reduction in crime.

If harsher punishment was the answer, then the U.S. would lead the world in
crime reduction. But crime has not been reduced in that country, despite
the fact that the prison population doubled between 1980 and 1990. In fact,
the crime rate in that country has seen a dramatic rise during the past two
decades, especially in places like the U.S. south where massive law
enforcement and prison expansion policies have been most vigorously
pursued.

Not even the reintroduction in some states of the most severe form of
punishment of all--the death penalty--has reduced crime. In fact, there has
been an upturn in the murder rate in the U.S., while Canada's murder rate
has decreased 27 percent since the death penalty was abolished in this
country.

The annual expenditure on criminal justice in the U.S. exceeds $70 billion.
In many jurisdictions the cost of corrections alone rose by several hundred
percent during the past two decades. In the book Crime Control as Industry,
criminologist Nils Christie contends that the U.S. has moved to a
counter-productive "Western Gulag" style of crime fighting. He argues that
the American resort to imprisonment is similar to the situation in
Stalinist Russia and approaches that in Nazi Germany. He warns that other
Western countries are in danger of following this destructive "war on
crime" model.

In 1991, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee described the U.S. as holding
the distinction of being "the most violent and self-destructive nation on
earth," leading the world's democracies in murder, rape, and robbery rates.
Despite imprisoning at a greater per capita rate than any nation on earth,
the U.S. is experiencing a spiral of failure in crime reduction.

By stark contrast, the only country in the industrialized world which has
drastically reduced crime is Japan. Japan also has the lowest per capita
imprisonment rate in the world--less than 50 people per 100,000. By
contrast, the United States incarcerates more than 500 per 100,000. Between
1948 and 1988 Japanese crimes of homicide decreased by 40 percent, robbery
by 60 percent and rape by nearly 80 percent. Japan has known a "spiral of
success" in crime reduction for over 40 years through a system variously
called "reintegrative shaming" or one of "confession, repentance, and
absolution." Capital punishment is still practised in Japan, but without
public notice and without general deterrence as a motive or effect.

In 1975 the first Canadian mediation program which offered to help both
victims and offenders was pioneered in Ontario by Mennonite Central
Committee (MCC). Through our mediation programs we have learned that many
crime survivors ultimately do not want vengeance--rather, they want
recovery. They tell us that revenge inhibits their healing process. They
want answers, interaction, confrontation, healing and closure. They want
consequences conducive to their restoration. They tell us often that their
healing became mysteriously tied to the offenders' healing. But they say
offenders must learn victim empathy, and in no way be let off lightly.

A justice system that would make a difference today would be one which
supports victims, is extremely efficient in the apprehension and conviction
of criminals, vigorously holds offenders accountable for their crimes,
offers the maximum opportunity for restoration to all parties involved in
the crime, makes mediation available for those who choose it and gives
offenders the impetus and opportunity to make amends.

This kind of justice system is called "restorative justice." There is
significant evidence that not only is the restorative way of justice
preferable morally and rationally, but it is highly cost-efficient as well
as cases are diverted from the expensive and overloaded court system.

It seems politically expedient at present to call for harsher treatment of
offenders. I hope that the Canadian government will resist such pressures,
for they are clearly counter-productive to the restoration and healing of
persons. For if we give in to a "tit-for-tat" mentality when it comes to
crime, we may ultimately destroy all that makes us "civilized." Practicing
an "eye for an eye," as Martin Luther King observed, will lead to a world
of morally "sightless" people.

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Wayne Northey directs the Victim-Offender programs of Mennonite Central
Committee in Canada.
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