When we listen carefully to the offenders, their youth workers, social workers, and psychologists, we learn that certain factors feature strongly in their lives. These include intergenerational trauma, adverse childhood experiences, lack of parenting and care, a high level of transiency, lack of meaningful education, depression and other mental health issues, FASD, homelessness, alcohol, and drug issues, and/or violence. Once on the streets, gang and peer pressure take over, and ringleaders set the rules. Anger over disadvantage fuels the situation.
Adequate housing has long been a problem in Alice Springs. It is expensive, and there are long waiting lists for public housing. Houses in the town camps are often overcrowded and unsafe for the young. Those who come out of prison often have difficulties finding housing,
despite numerous agencies to address the issue, and soon find themselves back on the streets and reoffending.
How houses in the suburbs of Alice Springs are protected against trespassing adds to the crime problem. The many high fences made from corrugated iron offer a labyrinth of hidden lanes and back alleyways. It is easy to climb these fences unseen, gather together
and hide, go through bags of stolen goods, and dump unwanted loot.
When we see crime as the triangle of (1) the desire of an offender to commit a crime; (2) the target of the desire; and (3) the opportunity for the crime to be committed, one way of breaking this triangle is by not giving the offender the opportunity. The architecture and town planning of Alice Springs, or rather their deficiencies, offer a major opportunity to the offenders. Thus, what is intended to protect against crime facilitates it instead.
Better town planning would help and make the town more attractive. A meaningful fence policy for the suburbs would be a start.
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