WHIPPING AS CRIME DETERRENT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 74, 28 July 1948, Page 4

WHIPPING AS CRIME DETERRENT

Retiring after long service \vith the Justice Department, Mr J. Miller, S.M., expressed the opinion at Napier recently that whipping was necessary as a deterrent, in certain cases of juvenile delinquency. There will probably be screams of horror from advocates of the new belief, that sparing the rod does not spoil the child but makes him a better citizen because. his young life .has not been overshadowed by any fears or inhibitions. That is a lovely theory, particularly suitable for acceptance by sentimental bachelor uncles and soft-hearted maiden aunts of ideally angelic children. But the lads Mr Miller was talking about would laugh at it. Young criminals are tough. But criminals apart, the general relaxing of discipline in the homes, in the schools, and elsewhere does not seem to have improved the youth of our day. The lad who is allowed to back-chat his parents and his teacher becomes no better man than he who was taught at the end of a stout cane to'respect his elders and to do the decent thing by those in authority. Many think he’s worse. And they’re right. It is an unpalatable truth that there is a general slackening of moral standards and standards of behaviour That does not apply alone to the very young, but it is a fact that the very young take, and are allowed to take, liberties that would have been considered shocking only a few. years back. If one harks back to the “good aid days” when honesty was a virtue rather than a weakness, when women were respected and courtesy was not the sickly, dying travesty of its former self it is today, one is accused of wanting to set the clock back. The answer is that it is an unintelligent progress that wants to jettison all that was good in the past whilst supplanting all that was bad. In one respect, Mr Miller has suggested putting the clock back. In view of all that has been said and written of late by those who ‘study social trends, there is something to worry about so far as juvenile delinquency is concerned and, as Mr Miller pointed out, the danger is possible pollution of youth of decent upbringing.