The phrase “law and order” has become such a familiar one that we sometimes treat it as a single word. Yet the maintenance of order is about much more than changes in the laws that parliament makes. If we want to live our lives free from crime, we must recognise that we all have a responsibility to help reduce it.
This is not to deny the importance of the legal framework. Safe and healthy communities need a strong, shared respect for the proper boundaries of the law and collective condemnation for those who break them. But any strategy to reduce crime must also take into account the fact that, as individuals and as communities, we all contribute both to the causes of crime and to its solutions.
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