Politicians love to talk tough on crime. More prison time, stricter sentences, zero tolerance. The public hears the rhetoric and assumes it's working.

But here's what they're not telling you: robbery reoffending has doubled since the government's latest crackdown began.

Ministry of Justice data shows 597 convicted robbers went on to commit robbery again in the latest quarter. That's a 103.8% surge from 293 reoffenders in the comparable period 13 years earlier (Source: Ministry of Justice, Proven Reoffending -- proven-reoffending_jan24_mar24_3_monthly -- B3_(3_monthly)).

Think about what this means. These aren't first-time offenders getting caught up in something stupid. These are people who've already been through the system, faced a judge, served time or paid the penalty. The system had its chance to change their behaviour. Instead, they came out and robbed someone else.

The surge tells you everything about how our approach to robbery is failing. We're not deterring anyone. We're not rehabilitating anyone. We're just cycling the same people through courts and prisons while more victims get hurt.

This isn't about being soft on crime. It's about admitting that what we're doing doesn't work. When reoffending doubles, that's not a blip or a statistical quirk. That's system failure.

The pattern holds across the justice system. Longer sentences don't cut reoffending. Harsher conditions don't reform behaviour. But politicians keep promising more of the same because it sounds decisive in a soundbite.

Meanwhile, someone who's already been mugged once gets mugged again by someone who should have been properly dealt with the first time. The victim pays twice: once for the original crime, once for the system's failure to prevent the next one.

Every one of those 597 repeat robberies represents a preventable crime. A person who didn't need to lose their phone, their wallet, their sense of safety. A crime that happened because we've built a justice system that talks tough but delivers nothing.

The data doesn't lie, even when the speeches do. Robbery reoffending has doubled. The tough-on-crime approach has failed. And until we admit that, we'll keep getting more of the same.