eliminating crimeWith one in six hundred citizens incarcerated in overcrowded prisons, the New South Wales government faces a catastrophic failure of policy on crime described by barrister Arthur Moses as the "failure of government to address those factors which are associated with crime, including poverty, drug abuse, lack of education opportunities, crime gangs, lack of facilities for the mentally ill and an under-resourced police force".Crime is essentially the product of an imbalance of power between the sexes, particularly of male adventurism in male dominated administrations, and can be eliminated along with prisons and much of the massive judicial bureaucracy devoted to crime.
Crimes of sexual violence, paedophilia, rape and family violence, for instance, are generated from the disempowerment of women and can be eliminated with organisational behaviour comprising women's and men's legislatures presided over by an executive of elders accompanied by courts of women's and men's jurisdiction.
Crimes of personal greed, community and global violence, including theft, public disorder, corporate crime and crimes against humanity can also be eliminated with the removal of the gender bias which has nurtured the domination of public policy by adolescent-minded males.
The health issues of drug production, supply and addiction, criminalised through male adventurism, can reasonably and responsibly be removed from the justice system altogether.
Organisational behaviour accentuating women's and men's innate qualities and capabilities eliminates the need for prisons once the legacy of male adventurism is removed.
With 3.1% of all adult residents, one in every 32 adults in the USA, nearly 6.6 million people, on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at the end of 2001, Americans have much to gain from the elimination of crime as well.
By contrast, Finland, the first country in Europe to grant suffrage to women in national elections (1906), has reduced imprisonment rates with the empowerment of women.
The Encyclopedia of the Nations indicates that "[w]omen are fairly well represented in both the executive and legislative branches of government in Finland. Women hold 38% of the seats in the 200-member Eduskunta and there were 8 women among the 18 cabinet members in 2003. Women have held top leadership positions, including Defense Minister (Elisabeth Rehn) and Foreign Minister (Tarja Halonen) and Speaker of Parliament. In February 2000, Finns elected Tarja Halonen their first female president. Anneli Jäätteenmäki was named prime minister following elections in March 2003."
Moreover, New York Yimes columnist Jim Holt suggests that "[t]hree decades ago, the Finns had a severe penal system modeled on that of the neighboring Soviet Union, and one of the highest imprisonment rates in Europe. Then they decided to rethink penal policy along more humane lines. Finnish prisons became almost ridiculously lenient by our standards. Inmates -- referred to as ''clients'' or ''pupils,'' depending on their age -- live in dormitory-style rooms, address guards by the first name and get generous home leaves. ''We believe that the loss of freedom is the major punishment, so we try to make it as nice inside as possible,'' one prison supervisor commented. Today, Finland imprisons the smallest fraction of its population of any European country (52 prisoners per 100,000 people, compared with 702 in the United States). Yet its crime rate, far from exploding, has remained at a low level."
Arthur Moses claims that "the majority of Australians understand the difference between cheap reactionary law and order policies and ones which seek constructive answers to crime and its causes".
With massive resources needlessly devoted to crime and the cruel fracturing of families and communities through imprisonment, citizens of both New South Wales and the United States have much to gain from the containment of male adventurism with the organisational empowerment of women.
January 12, 2006
