'Rough Suburbs'

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'Rough Suburbs'
Topic Started: Oct 5 2009, 10:34 AM (38 Views)
Sayf Udeen Ismaeel	Oct 5 2009, 10:34 AM Post #1
Icon by meagan_chelsea @ LJ Posts: 7,578 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: May 2, 2008 Gender Male Religious Views Muslim Political View All over the shop.	http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26165885-421,00.html More police coverage? Harsher penalties? Doing nothing about it and hoping the problem will go away? Guh! I vote for the first two.



stupidstuff	Oct 5 2009, 11:12 PM Post #2
Posts: 273 Group: Members Member #363 Joined: Nov 2, 2008 Gender Male Religious Views Agnostic Political View Leftist	I don't see any of the three being particularly effective approaches. I don't know what the weapon related penalties are currently like in Australia or how attentive the police are there to preventing shootings, but as a general statement I'll say that these two things, while necessary, are merely band-aids. They are too often used to avoid addessing the reason why so many are choosing to shoot guns at other people. More police coverage will, by near-definition, increase the amount of arrests for both gun and non-gun ofenses. This will certainly lead to an increase rate of incarceration. This will then lead somehow to a decrease in gun use? Are your prisons that good? They haven't proven to be so here in the USA. What do you think are the primary reasons behind shootings? Does Australia have a particular problem with wealth concerntration? I'm not sure if it does... I tried looking at a few sites but didn't find anything definitive about it. I ask because I consider poverty to be the greatest motivating factor behind someone deciding to shoot, or threaten to shoot, another person. A high prison population is a self-defeating proposition unless you can show significant positive rehabilitation rates. Edited by stupidstuff, Oct 5 2009, 11:14 PM.



gingerwitch28	Oct 6 2009, 05:12 AM Post #3
twenty-first century ennui Posts: 1,684 Group: Members Member #589 Joined: Apr 18, 2009 Gender Female Religious Views Atheist Political View Social Democracy	Okay well just from looking at that shooting rates list (I'm surprised, I thought the Strathfield region would be higher) it's a lack of wealth and remoteness issue. Most of the top cities are in the Western suburbs (Penrith is as far West as one can go in Sydney) which are known for gang-related incidences, particularly turf wars between different ethnic gangs. The West is pretty ethnically diverse, with Vietnamese, Lebanese and Latinos, most coming as refugees or escaping civil unrest - low socio-economic status and all, so I think it is definitely a wealth issue. By contrast, the bottom 5 regions (in which I live, go to school and in which most of my friends live, yes sheltered upper-middle class suburbs girl here) are generally comparatively wealthy, middle/upper-middle/upper class regions. Some of the other regions dotted on the list are technically outside of Sydney, Central Coast and the like - though I'm in no position to suggest the socio-economic status of that region. To speak generally, the highest areas on that list (with the exception of Sydney City) are all in the West, whereas the safer regions are in the East, along the coast. That's more or less how the wealth is divided too.



Sayf Udeen Ismaeel	Oct 6 2009, 09:06 AM Post #4
Icon by meagan_chelsea @ LJ Posts: 7,578 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: May 2, 2008 Gender Male Religious Views Muslim Political View All over the shop.	Quote: This will certainly lead to an increase rate of incarceration. This will then lead somehow to a decrease in gun use? Are your prisons that good? They haven't proven to be so here in the USA. I'm not an expert on the Australian prisons, and how one obtains a gun (I do know that it's a lot harder here than the USA, and I would understand it's a lot more expensive given the nature of how most of these firearms are purchased, illegally.) Quote: A high prison population is a self-defeating proposition unless you can show significant positive rehabilitation rates. I definitely agree with this. And at this point in the conversation that's all I feel I have to say.



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