escalating violence in our community Become a member of the Sensible Sentencing Trust

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Links

Garth's blog "Mister Sensible"
Stephen Frank's blog

Our Supporters

Hastings RSA have made a major financial commitment to supporting us
Crombie Lockwood Commercial & Personal Insurance Services subsidise our head office premises in Napier and also provide substantial funding
Guy Cater, hypnotist is an active supporter
Maori in Oz are also actively supporting us

NZ local initiatives on sentencing and justice related issues

Catch-a-Crim a public information gathering and sharing initiative on crime and criminals on a region by region basis
David Fraser, British Author of "Land Fit for Criminals - an insider's view of Crime, Punishment and Justice in the UK" is touring NZ starting June the 13th
Asian Anti-Crime Group NZ (AAG) this new initiative is focused on the needs of crime victims from Asian and immigrant communities. (temporary site)
Crime NZ Justice for victims of Crime, with goals very much in line with ours.
Christchurch Court News, covering cases in the Christchurch Court including some that may be missed by mainstream media.
Bikers Against Drunk Drivers set up by the victim of a drunk driver.
Red Raincoat NZ Trust Supporting the families of homicide victims in New Zealand. An organisation that sprang from this one.
Cradle To Jail The site detailing Theodore Dalrymple's October 2006 speaking tour of NZ, addressing the causes of crime.
Fight Against P the courageous and determined initiative by Pukekohe grandmother Marie Cotter against this evil threat.
www.kiwisfirst.com reports NEWS that furthers the open and equitable administration of justice in New Zealand. Its Mission is to advance, through accurate journalism, the three pillars of a responsible judicial system; transparency, lawful compliance and accountability.
NZ Centre for Political Debate run by Dr Muriel Newman. Garth has several Guest articles here.
Candor - Campaign Against Drugs on Roads
End Child Prostitution And Tourism an extremely worthwhile local organisation set up to stop child molestation and exploitation both here and overseas.
CPS Training preventing child abuse and ensuring NZ becomes a safer place for children
Light One Life For the Sake of Our Children Trust, raising awareness of child abuse in New Zealand
Great Potentials Helping children, young people and families to flourish in New Zealand
Brainwave Trust raising awareness of the importance of early intervention into dysfunctional families
Commonsense Laws A new NZ initiative to stimulate some realistic thinking about law and order issues in NZ
Norm Withers' Law and Order Referendum site campaigning for the Government to carry out the wishes of 92 percent of New Zealanders
Citizens For Justice A site dealing with wider justice issues in NZ
No Excuses A very good crime reduction programme for youth
ToughLove A support group for parents of misbehaving youth
D.A.R.E. Foundation NZ Drug Abuse Resistance Education NZ
D.A.R.E. Dunedin Dunedin branch of above group
D.A.R.E. Kapiti Kapiti branch of above group
Life Education Trust similar aims to D.A.R.E
Shared Faces An online resource for retailers where they can see an online photo database of shoplifters
Netsafe an impressive local Internet Safety site.
Crime.co.nz, a local crime site with Police involvement Has a lot of useful links and information
NZ Sporting Shooters Association Has a lot of indepth articles on law and order in general, well worth checking out even if you have no great interest in guns
Noise Off organisation focused on vehicle crime and disturbance - AKA the "boy racer" issue

NZ local initiatives to improve government that include sentencing and justice issues

Better Democracy a campaign to make Citizens Initated Referenda binding on the Government. Download a petition form here. If this had been in place in 1999, there would have been no need for Sensible Sentencing Trust in the first place....
Bill Dalton, Napier City Councillor makes a number of relevant comments on his blog which is on his site
On a lighter note; Don't vote labour cartooons

NZ Government sites relevant to sentencing and justice issues

Police Resources page lots of useful info, including up to date statistics
NZ Corrections And here
NZ Justice Ministry Lots of excellent in-depth Reports and data
Access to Justice local educational resource on the justice system and how it works
NZ Parole Board have now started putting decisions and info for victims online.
Institute of Criminology at Victoria University.
The National Neighbourhood Support site
Neighbourhood Support in Kauwerau

Victim sites local

Victim Support New Zealand
Auckland Rape Crisis for victims of one of the foulest of crimes
Sexual Abuse Survivors Trust offering Safecare, Counselling, Advocacy service etc. Based in Christchurch
Victim Link Services advocacy and personal support for crime victims, set up by a crime victim
Bikers Against Drunk Drivers set up by a lady who lost her partner to a drunk driver
Tanya Burr Memorial site created in loving memory of a young woman recently murdered in a home invasion in Rotorua.
Shattered Dreams the story of Tamati Paul, whose life was changed by a speeding drunk driver
End Child Prostitution And Tourism an extremely worthwhile local organisation set up to stop child molestation and exploitation both here and overseas.

Relevant Articles NZ

Hard core Drinking Drivers in New Zealand article by researcher John Bailey (requires Acrobat Reader)
Summary of Controlling Crime in New Zealand an excellent and well researched report from the NZ Business Round Table of all people. Even if you disagree with everything else they say, this is still well worth reading (available on site).
Gareth Morgan of Infometrics making sense in an article on crime and accountability.
Forensic DNA Success a useful ESR article describing the link that the ESR dicovered between burglars and rapists amongst other things.
Family Violence a comprehensive page on this unpleasant topic.
A horrific description of the career of one particular criminal.
A study of "Restorative Justice" and Family Group Conferences in NZ from an overseas criminology site

Australian sentencing and justice related sites

MAKO Movement Against Kindred Offenders, an Australian site campaigning for Zero Tolerance for paedophiles and Sex Offenders and for a National database of such offenders .
CrimeNet Excellent new Australian initiative, placing criminal records on the Net for all to see.
View a Thief just what it says... another Australian initiative
Enough is Enough an Australian anti-violence group.
People Against Lenient Sentencing an Australian Sentencing Lobby group.
Australian Institute of Criminology lots of in-depth info and statistics.

Australian Victim sites

Bravehearts for victims of paedophilia in Australia, providing support and counselling
New South Wales Victims of Crime Bureau formed as a result of excellent legislation there in 1996.
Victim Support in Adelaide Australia

US sentencing and justice related sites

APBnews, a U.S. Crime and Justice site, lots of info. Their "Cybrary" of links is well worth looking into, it has masses of links
Arrested.com online crime portal in the U.S,
National Centre for Policy Analysis in the U.S Has some very good articles and research
For info on Three Strikes, where else but www.threestrikes.org
About.com Crime and Punishment An International US based forum on this issue.
A HUGE U.S. report on what works and what doesn't
Crime-Times A research site for those investigating biological causes for criminal behaviour
Without Conscience A book by Professor Robert Hare PhD, the leading authority on psychopathic criminal behaviour
Malignant Self-Love Another extremely in-depth site on the subject of psychopaths
Bureau of Justice Statistics US Government site, very useful in depth info.
Comparative Criminal Justice Resources masses of links, not all of them work, but still plenty that do.
Crime Statistics Links again, lots of data and links, not all working, but most.
Maricopa County Sheriff they're tough here! This is the famous "chain gang" sheriff in the USA that was in the news a while back
Citizens For Effective Justice Another U.S. site proposing an interesting if scary solution!
Perverted-Justice.com Exposing paedophiles and predators online. Be Warned - some material on this site is disturbing! .

US Victim sites

Parents of Murdered Children excellent victim site in the US
The Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families another site for families of victims in the US
From Pain to Power A USA Victim Support Group
Office for the Victims of Crime A US Government Initiative. Were that our Government were half so responsive..
National Center for Victims of Crime USA
Justice Information Center Victims Pages USA
Justice For All An excellent private victims lobby group in the USA
Murder Victims USA
Crime Victims United of California USA, obviously.
Crime Victims United in Oregon
Condemned.org actively removing child porn from the internet, a very commendable cause
Prevent Abuse Now PANdora’s Box (note capitalization)– the Secrecy of Child Abuse - a comprehensive child abuse prevention resource.
"Violence and the remaking of a Self" The personal Testimony of a rape victim.
And last but definitely not least, a very interesting initiative enabling victims to track an offender anytime, anyplace. This is how parole information should be done. VINE Group, plus a similar initiative in the UK, the Criminal Records Bureau.
Such online offender databases are common in the US,

Other overseas sentencing and justice related sites

Japan Criminal Policy Society For a different perspective on how to do it - and do it properly. When you're done, come and sort out our mess, guys!
Singapore Police Force look at the stats on this site. Compare them with ours. Sobering.
Sensible Sentencing is currently collating crime data some of which can be found here on our Crime Statistics pages
Spikey a UK initiative to stop drink spiking, something that has also been a problem here.

Other overseas Victim sites

Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (MAMAA) a British organisation similar to the Red Raincoat Trust here, providing support to the families of murder victims.
Justice for James Bulger set up on behalf of the victims' family in the UK.
Canadians against Violence (CAVEAT), an excellent Victims Support group in Canada
Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime

Relevant Articles (overseas)

Arrested Development by Theodore Dalrymple, a British prison doctor who speaks with the voice of sad experience...
Exposing Shallowness also by Theodore Dalrymple
Policeman in Wonderland An article by Theodore Dalrymple in City-Journal Magazine, one of Rudolph Giuliani's sources of inspiration.
Does Punishment Deter? Yes! (PDF, long article, several pages)
Parole puts a clear, concise case against parole of violent offenders, backed by research data
Origins of Violence an article from the Economist about recent research done here demonstrating the genetic influences on violent behaviour.
An article about the research by Steve Pinker into the biological causes of human behaviour, including violence.
Evolution, Males, and Violence about male violence and biology.
Evolutionary Psychology and Violence on the evolutionary origins of violence

Political Parties in alphabetical order

ACT
Alliance
Aeotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
Democrats
Greens
Kiwi party
Labour
Libertarianz
Maori Party
National
NZ First
Progressive Coalition
United Future
Sensible Sentencing will be monitoring all these parties and their MP's in due course as we build up membership