Reducing Incarceration Rates in Australia Through Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Crime Prevention

Abstract

In Australia, incarceration rates have steadily increased since the 1980s, providing an imperative for crime prevention. We explored the extent to which Australian justice sector policies were aimed at preventing crime, using a framework for “primary, secondary and tertiary” crime prevention. We analyzed policies and legislation ( n = 141) across Australian jurisdictions (a census was undertaken from May to September 2016, with policies spanning from 1900 to 2022). We found a strong focus on tertiary crime prevention, with recidivism rather than root causes of crime problematised. We also found little focus on primary crime prevention, despite some high-level cross sectoral strategies designed to prevent crime. In this paper, we will use the framework of Bacchi’s “what’s the problem?” approach, considering levels of crime prevention, social determinants of health, and discourses surrounding crime. We discuss policy implications and make suggestions for policy reform and accountability mechanisms to reduce crime and incarceration.

Common Problems! and Common Solutions? — Teaching at the Intersection Between Public Health and Criminology: A Public Health Perspective

“…Despite these barriers to both interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in education and learning, it is still worthwhile to pursue this approach, especially when there is an important intersectionality between the two disciplines, as in the case of public health and criminology. This is crucial considering the current debate regarding violence and crime prevention, reflected in terms such as "public health approach to crime prevention" or "public health approach to policing" across many countries and continents [48,[81][82].…”

“…In public health, primary prevention refers to all actions directed to avoid the manifestation of a disease (including actions to improve health through changing the impact of social and economic determinants on health, the provision of information on behavioral and medical health risks across all ages, etc.). Secondary crime prevention engages in early identification of potential offenders and seeks to intervene in their lives in such a way that they never commit criminal violation [43]; in public health, secondary prevention emphasizes early disease detection (e.g., through screening), and its target is healthy-appearing individuals with subclinical forms of disease [48][49]. Tertiary crime prevention deals with actual offenders and involves intervention in their lives in such a fashion that they will not commit further offenses [48].…”

“…Secondary crime prevention engages in early identification of potential offenders and seeks to intervene in their lives in such a way that they never commit criminal violation [43]; in public health, secondary prevention emphasizes early disease detection (e.g., through screening), and its target is healthy-appearing individuals with subclinical forms of disease [48][49]. Tertiary crime prevention deals with actual offenders and involves intervention in their lives in such a fashion that they will not commit further offenses [48]. In public health, tertiary prevention is aimed at preventing successive incidents after disease has occurred in order to reduce the occurrence as well as the severity of sequelae [49].…”