Insight Maker was used to illustrate the relationship between police enforcement and community development initiatives (youth counselling, educational institution and sports clubs) and the influence these may have on illegal and disruptive activities and subsequent crime rates of the adolescents in the town of Bourke.

 

Through examination of the existing relationships between variables (youth counselling vs alienated adolescents), we can highlight if an inverse relationship is present between adolescent crime rates and community development initiatives within Bourke.

Due to the subdued nature of Bourke as a country town, it is likely that the population of adolescents become bored and subsequently alienated throughout their developmental stages.

Thus, this illustration aims to identify if there is benefit in development of additional community initiatives, in the hopes that these will guide positive behavioural change within the adolescent community. For example, youth counselling, educational institutions and local sporting clubs.

To develop the model, we assume that the adolescent members of the Bourke population that routinely participate in youth counselling, are active members of a sporting club or undertake studies at the local educational institution (University or TAFE) are less likely to engage in criminal activity. 

We have assumed that adolescents spend (on average) 24 months at an educational institution, which has been represented as a 12 month delay, illustrating that the long-term benefits to the community are somewhat delayed.

The two independent variables are illustrated in circles, with relationships between these variables and stocks linked by green (positive relationship), and orange (negative relationship) arrows. 

Thus, independent variables are as follows:

By adjusting the values in the sliders, a trend of adolescents engaging in less criminal activity begins to form. This also corresponds to less time throughout the criminal justice system and juvenile detention.

Thus, the illustrated model reveals that the town of Bourke, would benefit from additional community development initiatives, such as youth counselling, sports clubs and educational institutions, which assist in keeping the adolescent population occupied.

This model simulates possible crime patterns among the youth population of Bourke, where levels of alienation, policing and community engagement expenditure can be manipulated. Here the youth in Bourke have a minimum percentage of interest to participate in community activities in which the government aims to improve their lifestyle and therefore reduce the rate of criminal activity. Alienation and expenditure are the independent variables.