By Emma Webb and Shane McArthur
"Law and order" has become a key issue in the lead up to the SA state elections, just as it did in previous elections in WA, NSW and Queensland. Liberal and Labor have taken a bipartisan line, promising to get tough on young offenders and combat the "youth crime wave" that is apparently sweeping the nation.
State minister for youth affairs, correctional services, and training and further education, Dorothy Kotz, has proposed a midnight to 5am curfew for under 14 year olds. Kotz has also proposed that police be given more powers to break up "youth gangs".
ALP opposition leader Mike Wran has endorsed this approach, promising that, if elected, the ALP would introduce the toughest youth law and order legislation in the country.
Legislation passed in NSW, Queensland, WA and the NT over the last few years has used the fear of crime to target young people. Laws have included significant increases in penalties for young people, including life imprisonment for some crimes, and new provisions allowing police to disperse groups of young people, fingerprint them without laying charges; and establish boot camps for young offenders.
The youth crime wave is a myth. Only 3.9% of young people are involved in the juvenile justice system. Seventy percent of those never re-offend. Contrary to the popular opinion being manufactured by the media, young people do not constitute the largest category of serious offenders.
Youth curfews are at the centre of the legislative changes. In addition to state proposals, various local councils have attempted to implement youth curfews. In Port Augusta in South Australia, a 1990 referendum recorded a vote in favour of a 10pm curfew for people under the age of 16. The proposal clearly targeted the Aboriginal community.
Kotz has justified curfews as protecting young people from crime, particularly paedophilia. This is contradicted by the pattern of crime committed against young people — close to 50% of assaults and more than 50% of sexual assaults occur within the home. If anything, curfews will criminalise young people seeking refuge from violent family situations.
Youth curfews punish behaviour which is neither anti-social nor criminal — simply being out on the streets. Rather than preventing young people from entering the juvenile justice system, youth curfews will do exactly the opposite by increasing conflict between young people, the legal system and the police.
Youth curfews are an attack on the civil liberties of all young people. Given the widespread occurrence of discriminatory policing, Aboriginal, unemployed, ethnic, poor and homeless young people will bear the brunt of this sort of legislation.
The myth of the youth crime wave is part of a broader ideological offensive that aims to promote the family as solely responsible for the social security of young people, the unemployed, the elderly and the sick. This further justifies cuts to the funding of public social welfare programs.
Youth crime is supposedly the result of "moral decay" and the erosion of "family values". The social problems that lead to crime, such as unemployment, poverty, homelessness and alienation, are blamed on individuals.
In a time of economic instability and polarisation in society, the youth crime wave myth is aimed at further convincing working people that they have to accept a tightening of social control through attacks on civil liberties and greater powers being given to police.
Real solutions to crime will only come with real solutions to the problems that cause it. A starting point would be creating real jobs, significantly increasing publicly funded youth and community services and providing a guaranteed living income for all.