Zero Tolerance: The Cause Of, And Solution To, All Our Problems.

        Good news, everybody! Currently, you have the lowest chance of being a victim of crime since 1980! Despite promises that by 6:45pm we'd all have been happy-slapped four times, it seems that it is genuinely safer to walk down the streets today than when The Empire Strikes Back and PacMan were released. This is interesting, mostly because I'm sure if you asked the public if they thought this was the case, the answer would be a resounding "no". Possibly followed by, I imagine, "who are you", and "what are you doing in my back garden". Now, this is interesting. There's a massive difference between actual real "crime", and the not-necessarily-real "fear of crime". I will avoid pinning the blame this week on the Daily Mail and their headlines of "OHMYGODWEAREALLGOINGTODIE", but this leaves me with nothing to blame it on. So, I will just reiterate the point. You are less likely to be a victim of crime now than you were when AC/DC's Back In Black was released, 32 years ago. And in the same breath, I've made some people feel just that little bit older.


        So what's caused this to happen? I personally have no idea but I suspect if I made it back into the garden of the aforementioned member of the public before the police arrived, they'd tell me, while swiping at me with a broom, that it might be related to a prevalence of zero-tolerance policies in schools since then. And they'd sound pretty spot on! I mean, there's something called the "broken windows theory" that was batted around New York after they stopped being all crime-filled and started being all tourist-filled. It basically suggests that if you don't nip crime in the bud when someone's breaking a small window, then they'll go on to breaking more windows, then they're breaking the door down and stealing dust and before you know it, they've stolen the whole building before they turn it into a super-lair for super villains! But if you catch them when the small window is broken, they cease their wave of crime, become fair-trade chocolate vendors and the office can be turned into a shelter for homeless window-replacement fitters, who are now totally out of work. Or another office, which is probably more likely. Whatever, we can also note that after their policy came about, crime dropped. Which was nice. So can we assume that a rolling out of Zero Tolerance policies in schools will lead to no crime in the future? Nope, not at all. But after my big explanation, why not?

        Because it doesn't work. That's why.

        Let me explain: one thing that Zero Tolerance does, is take away anyone's ability to make a judgement call and replaces it with "treat everyone as the worst possible denominator". Quite simply, there is no "tolerance" for circumstances, age, scenario or proportionality. Take drugs as a starter. It doesn't need really pointing out that bringing enough drugs to supply a weekend at Woodstock isn't going to help boost grades in Geography, and anyone who not only fills their bag with more E's than processed food but gives them out should probably be expelled. This is the "worst possible denominator". It's when someone hands out some Anadin to a friend because they have a headache. Yes, over-the-counter medicines are legally considered "drugs", and are not allowed in schools without official permission. Anyone with a brain would say that as long as they're for an actual headache, there's no harm in it. However, deciding that is known as "a judgement call", and under Zero Tolerance, you're not allowed such a thing. Think that's far-fetched? Well a 13 year old in New York experienced exactly this, because her school had a Zero Tolerance policy to drugs.

        It also ignores one-off bad judgement. Should the girl who always hands in her homework, who forgets it one day be punished in the same way and with the same severity as the one who puts in so little effort, that they're not even sure he's still breathing? Well it doesn't matter what you think, she will be. Because they have "zero tolerance" against these things. Bad judgement? Sometimes, some of the good kids can get into trouble, because we all love peer-pressure. Whereas taking the time to explain why this is bad and could land them in further trouble would fix the issue and leave the lad with a lesson, so he can concentrate on being an astronaut, or a rocket scientist, or an Internet Billionaire or whatever it is that kids want to be, what you have to do (because you aren't allowed to take things into account) is treat him like the school bully. Which will go on his record. Which will stop him from working as a professional Internetist, leading him to become a criminal mastermind.

        So no. Despite the press, it doesn't seem that having a nice simple "Zero Tolerance" rule does work. New York might have seen crime drop, but then again so did most of the cities across America, and they (and we) did something that New York was not allowed to do: use it's brain.



images credited to Graeme Weatherston

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