TOEWS IS WRONG

Justice Minister Vic Toews clings to the wrong conventional wisdom
that tough mandatory minimum sentences will drive down the crime
rate. He says that was proven in the 1990s in the United States.
Experts in criminology disagree. He says it is common sense that if
you increase the number of police, the crime rate will go down.

Washington, D.C., and Denver have similar populations. Washington has
three times as many police and eight times the murder rate as Denver.
In their book Freakonomics, authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J.
Dubner provide a strong case as to why the crime rate declined in the
1990s in the United States.

On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in the Roe versus Wade case
that abortions were legal. This permitted poor, unmarried, and
teenage mothers -- for whom illegal abortions were too expensive or
too hard to get -- to have legal abortions.

All children are not born equal. Decades of studies have shown that a
child born into an adverse family environment is far more likely than
other children to become a criminal. The fact that reducing the
number of unwanted children would reduce the crime rate should
surprise no one. On average, since 1973 there have been about one
million abortions a year in the U.S.. This is one million unwanted
children each year becoming part of the society.

Toews says New York City's crime reduction was due to increased
penalties and more police officers. How would he explain the
reduction in crime in all jurisdictions in the U.S. in the 1990s?

Five states permitted abortions prior to 1973. Their crime rates were
reduced sooner than those states that did not permit abortions.

Toews has a simplified view of crime and punishment. His view is if
you increase the punishment, then the would-be criminal won't do the
crime. But criminals don't plan to be caught, so the penalty is irrelevant.

Toews wants to increase penalties to appease the right-wingers who
are big into vengeance. They would be happy to pay taxes to build
prisons and hire staff.

The money would be better spent concentrating on the root of the
problem and helping to create a better environment for the poor and needy.

Norval Horner, Conservative MP for Battleford-Kindersley, 1972-74