IPC - Why ?
Too much crime
Media attention to shooting deaths and murders of young women remind us of our vulnerability to crime. These are the exceptional and sensational events that get headlines. Yet Canadians are still victims of common violent and property crime at unacceptable rates – one in four adults each year - costing victims who suffer loss, trauma and injury an estimated $50 billion.
Prevention is proven to lower crime rates best
Canada spends more than $13 billion on police, prisoners and judges in a mainly reactive manner. Yet authoritative commissions and research bodies, such as WHO, UN, the US National Research Council, the UK Audit Commission and so on, have analyzed the research on what lowers rates of interpersonal crime. They agree that governments must go beyond law enforcement and criminal justice to tackle the risk factors that cause crime because it is more cost effective and leads to greater social benefits than the standard ways of responding to crime. Interestingly multiple opinion polls also confirm public support for investment in prevention rather than more standard policing, judges or prisoners.
Parliamentary Committees want effective prevention strategy
At a seminal conference in Montreal in 1989, local government leaders in Canada, the USA and internationally called for all orders of governments to invest in tackling the risk factors that cause crime - focusing on programs for youth at risk, families in difficulty and neighbourhood renewal. In 1993 and again in 1997, Canadian parliamentary committees called for a national strategy for crime prevention and recommended specific and concrete measures by all orders of government to achieve these.
Canada has started prevention but major shift still needed
In 1994, the National Crime Prevention Council was formed. By 1997 it had produced reports on ways for Canada to tackle risk factors that cause crime. In 1997, this was replaced by the National Crime Prevention Centre which has an annual budget for prevention projects of about $60 million. This federal expenditure has not yet been matched by provincial investment. After a paragraph on “tough on criminals”, the speech from throne from the Federal government in 2006 included the following on tough on causes:
It is equally important that we prevent criminal behaviour before it has a chance to take root. To this end, the Government will work with the provinces and territories to help communities provide hope and opportunity for our youth, and end the cycle of violence that can lead to broken communities and broken lives.
To make the shift, UN norms call for more research and capacity building
In 1994, Canada collaborated with Quebec and France to launch the International Centre for Prevention of Crime now affiliated with the UN. In 2002, Canada with ICPC assistance brokered new UN Guidelines on (evidence based) crime prevention. These recommend that governments and non-governmental agencies must have the human, research and data capacity to mobilize different sectors such as schools, housing, and police to tackle the risk factors that cause crime. A national conference in 2003 recommended action at all levels of government in Canada, including developing the human, research and data capacity. This lack of capacity is the major hindrance to reducing rates of crime effectively, sustainable and responsibly through prevention.