THE NAKED TRUTH ABOUT CRIME: BEYOND THE HOODIE STEREOTYPE
Governments love to tout crime reduction strategies in glossy pre-election promises, but the reality—once the votes are tallied and policies implemented—reveals a stark disconnect. Crime, after all, is defined by laws, and the laws we enforce reflect the priorities we choose. In Australia, as in the United States, the costliest crimes in dollars and social damage are not committed by the stereotypical “man in the hoodie”—the young, ghetto-clad figure wielding a knife at a tobacco shop, smashing an unattended ATM, or robbing a lone 7/11 attendant. These street-level offenses dominate media headlines and public perception, but they’re just the tip of a very large socio political iceberg.
The real crime story in Australia lies elsewhere, buried beneath layers of privilege and respectability. White-collar crime siphons billions from our economy—stolen funds funneled through sophisticated schemes that dwarf the petty thefts of the hoodie-clad crook. Yet how often do we picture the drug pushing nephew of a high-society ABC board member, the crooked thieving lawyer progeny of a High Court judge, or a High Court judge or two guilty of sexually harassing their staff, a company auditor, or the junkie daughter of a prominent MP when we think of a “criminal”? What about the respectable mother, feminist, priest, or policeman? Criminal statistics tell us these profiles fit just as snugly as the hoodie stereotype—sometimes more so. The difference? Their crimes rarely make the evening news.
Inset: Disgraced High Court of Australia Judge Dyson Heydon found guilty of sexually harrasing 6 of his female associates is back on the streets-courtesy of the NSW Law Society
Australia leads the OECD in the use of hard drugs, with its population reportedly consuming the highest per capita amounts of substances like heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine (ice), amphetamines, fentanyl, and other addictive drugs. The issue extends beyond just usage statistics. The black economy is estimated to account for over 3% of the nation’s $1.8 trillion economy. However, according to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the black economy is valued at only $50 billion—a figure that, by their own admission, omits substantial segments of the broader underground economy.
ENABLERS OF CRIME AND THE CULTURE OF CRIME
Lawyers, accountants—especially partners and associates at the Big 4 firms—and tax specialists orchestrate the movement of illicit funds, exploiting (or outright abusing) the very laws meant to govern them. There have been at least 8 Deputy Commissioners of the ATO who have been caught out aiding and abetting tax dodgers and money launderers over the past decade.
Governments either lack the knowledge, employ unsuitble candidates to important jobs required to tackle this epidemic; or they are too compromised to try, because their own ranks are peppered with players who fear exposure. And who aids these white-collar criminals? Not the hoodie eighbourhood thug on the street, but the incompetent politically appointed corporate regulator at ASIC, senior officials at the ATO, company directors flanked by their lawyer-accountant advisors and an indolent and ineffective parliament to support.
“Voters doubt that either political party has the requisite leadership, courage or instincts to deal with organized crime beyond the optics and sound bites“
The Legal Services Commissioners and state Law Societies? Asleep at the wheel help the criminal culture along. Self-regulating professional bodies turn a blind eye, hesitant to prosecute their own, when doing so might implicate their boards or tarnish their elite social circles. A cursory glance of Lawyers Weekly, an industry publication for the legal profession- not associated with the Queesland or New South Wales Law Societies-, provides some insights into the depth and dimensions of the rot within the legal profession and their association’s double standards in dealing with the problem.
Meanwhile, our governments bark up the wrong tree. They hand “get out of jail” free passes to the Alan Bonds, Christopher and Eddie Groves of the world—high-flying fraudsters who hire top-tier PR firms and lobbyists to shield their criminality, spinning it into a blockbuster thriller for the ABC or a sanitized documentary for a national broadcaster.
A GROWING ALTERNATIVE TO THE BREAKDOWN OF CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED LAW ENFORCEMENT
In the alternative, government, allow loopholes in the law to remain on the statute books to aid in the continued commission of similar offences by newer players to proliferate. Crime doesn’t pay, we’re told. But for these players, it clearly does—while it erodes our credibility as a society, a culture, and integrity like a metastasizing cancer.
When judges and courts falter in upholding justice impartially, paid underworld enforcers and rogue gangs seize control of the void. In New South Wales and Queensland’s Gold Coast, lawyers—caught in their own web of excess and incompetence—have become prey to these so-called “alternative dispute resolution managers.” Meanwhile, in Victoria, a feared standover man and alleged killer operates a company that settles construction disputes between union workers and developers, bypassing a court system neither side trusts, tarnished by the stained reputations of its judges and legal practitioners. And the government stands idly by fearing exposure of its own involvement in the union movement that finances its election campaigns.
WHO WILL BELL THE CAT
Bold government action could contain this scourge, but that requires bold, informed leaders—something sorely lacking in the current crop of politicians on both sides of the Lower House and Senate. Too often, they’re distracted, chasing gender theories or staking moral claims in foreign wars where Australia has no business meddling. Their priorities are misaligned, their education inadequate, and their courage absent.
This could be the last election fought along traditional party lines. As cracks widen in our political and social fabric, new players are emerging. Chinese and Southeast Asian communities , are quietly grooming a cadre of disciplined leaders to push an alternative vision: a drug-free, economically robust Australia not grounded in rugged individualism but collectivism, family and community values, higher educational standards, and a rejection of identity politics and handout mentalities. Whether this vision takes root remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the naked truth about crime won’t stay buried forever. It’s time we stopped fixating on the hoodie and started confronting the suits who’ve been robbing us blind.
Lauren Pritchard