Tackling the causes of crime, not sending more people to jail, is the only way to fight it

• It requires becoming not “tough on crime,” but “smart on crime” before it happens.
• This approach requires governments to invest in enough proven prevention measures to greatly reduce injuries, trauma and loss of life stemming from violent crime.
• The city’s community safety plan diagnosed the risk factors and focused proven prevention initiatives on those most vulnerable to violence.

Horner recommendations

• Thirty years ago, Bob Horner, a staunch Conservative and former RCMP officer, chaired a parliamentary committee on crime prevention in Canada.
• He was blunt: “If locking up those who violate the law contributed to safer societies, then the United States should be the safest country in the world.” But Horner did not just criticize, he made recommendations on how to prevent crime.
• He correctly called for an official at a senior level to be solely tasked with putting effective prevention into action.
• Horner also called for an annual investment in crime prevention equivalent to five per cent of the expenditures spent on policing and criminal justice.

Preventing violence

• That evidence is publicly available from various sources, including the United States Justice Department’s Crime Solutions platform.
• As part of our analysis, we examined Crime Solutions and several similar platforms to explain to decision-makers how these programs are proven to stop violence and how to implement them.
• Key components of these proven solutions include: • Hiring and training social workers and mentors to reach out to young men prone to involvement in violence and to assist with trauma; • Recruiting case workers to join surgeons in hospital emergency rooms to ensure that victims of violence do not make repeat appearances; • Helping young men with problem-solving skills and emotional regulation to control the anger that can lead to injuries to others; • Providing opportunities for job training, mentoring and jobs in areas where the violence originates; • Participation in courses that prevent sexual violence by shifting social norms about consent in schools and encouraging students to take action as bystanders at universities.

Community safety planning

• Ontario changed the name of its policing law in 2019 to the Community Safety and Policing Act with a new section that requires municipalities to develop community safety and well-being plans.
• Ottawa must also develop professional community safety planners, raise awareness nationally about proven solutions and provide tools to achieve and track results.

Irvin Waller made a donation to the federal Greens and Ontario NDP in 2023. Jeffrey Bradley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.