Editorial: Tragedies behind the crimes

OPINION: It's meant to be black and white: Bad guys do bad things, they get locked up by the good guys and we all move on towards a safer, more idyllic future.

However, as much as we like to see it that way and the image we crave is reinforced by a media striving to deliver a simplified version of what is often a complicated story, the real narrative behind crime and punishment is rarely that simple.

Yes, there are bad people such as William Bell and Clayton Weatherston whose heinous crimes appear to mark the perpetrators as men without pity or remorse and not worthy of redemption.

But for every Bell, Weatherston or Hotere there are countless others for whom the crime itself and the damage it brings are not the only tragedies, for whom the sad background paints a picture that is anything but black and white.

On the face of it, the case involving drink-drive killer Alison Downer is simple enough: Woman with a history of drinking heavily hops into a car and goes on to kill a cyclist, a teacher, a father.

A woman is left a widow and wondering who is going to pay for her children's upbringing.

An angry nation fed up with the carnage created by recidivist drink-drivers screams for retribution: Lock them up! Throw away the key!

But the story behind 71-year-old grandmother Downer and how she came to be behind the wheel and double the alcohol limit is not a tragedy that began the moment she ploughed into her unfortunate victim, Frank van Kampen. The story was a tragedy the moment Downer became addicted to alcohol and her life spiralled downwards and out of control, careening towards a hapless Mr van Kampen.

Alcoholism, an unhappy marriage, the death of a daughter and isolation from a family are things that would push many to the brink.

That does not lessen the enormity of her offending, cheapen the sorrow of her victim's family or remove the need for firm punishment of yet another recidivist drink-driver. Many face similar burdens or worse and do not resort to alcohol and then drive.

But it does give a little more insight into the pain that inspires such calamitous collisions of different lives and follows the moment of the impact.

It does force a little more grey into that previously stark image of monochrome morality. And it forces us to look deeper at our preconceived notions of crime, punishment and forgiveness.

- © Fairfax NZ News