OPINION:
If the crime news is correct, we appear to be suffering an epidemic of "smash and grabs" and "ram raids". The raiders don't seem to even need a stolen car to crash through a storefront. I recently watched a fuzzy black-and-white security video of a teenager using his metal scooter to smash a jewellery shop window and grab a fistful of goodies before scooting off into the night.
Such recordings show many of the perpetrators are teenagers, and some are even younger.
In the Bay of Plenty alone, according to police, the number of ram raids has tripled in the past three years. It is a largely similar story across the rest of the country. You have to wonder why.
Some of the offenders have videoed their raids and put the footage up on social media, so I guess there is an element of teen copycat behaviour. Blame social media? Could it have been a teen reaction to the boredom of Covid lockdowns?
I noticed a spate of raids on butchers' shops. A kinder person than I am might suggest that poverty and hunger are responsible for those ones. It's more likely the reason is the same as for most thefts – greed and stupidity.
I spotted what may be a clue to the question of "why" in a press statement by National MP Erica Stanford. She had ploughed through the 2021 NCEA results and discovered a disquieting trend. The figures for Year 11 students in decile 1-3 schools showed what she termed a "huge drop" in literacy, from 78.5 per cent to 74.8 per cent in just one year. It was the same story in numeracy, falling from 76.9 per cent to 73.8 per cent.
If you can't read or add up numbers when you leave school, the chances of getting a decent-paying job are slim to non-existent. And, of course, you cannot afford to buy the tempting flash stuff you see in shops. So, you steal it.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.That is an extreme argument, but there is a linkage between low educational achievement and crime.
Stanford's numbers are worrying. She argues that the falling literacy and numeracy figures were a result of the Covid-19 lockdowns, and claims that 40 per cent of children are "not even going to school regularly", with chronically absent students rising by 50 per cent. She says it points to not just a social failure but "a future economic crisis". As we appear to be already entering an economic crisis, with rapidly rising inflation, that is an ugly warning.
Thus, Covid gets the blame for falling educational achievement, truancy and maybe even the spate of ram raids. More to the point, rather than blaming the virus, maybe we should begin by asking questions about parenting. Why are some parents failing to ensure their kids are actually going to school? Why are some parents failing to ensure their teenagers are not out on the streets late at night contemplating burglary? Why are they not inculcating their teens with the trait of honesty? Why is it that a small proportion of parents are failing in their duty of care?
I know every generation berates their young people over their standards and behaviour. I don't. I blame the parents of those kids who fail to learn at school or go on to commit crimes. The buck stops with them.
The government is pumping additional billions of dollars into education and the police, yet it seems to have little to no effect on the problems we are talking about. That is probably because the government money spent at large can't remedy inadequate parenting at home.
