Novel Scheme To Deal With Erring Children

Chronicle (Levin), 23 November 1949, Page 5

Novel Scheme To Deal With Erring Children

/ LONDON, Nov. 21. As measurds to reduce child delinquency, Sir George Eddy, for ten years children's Magistrate in Kidderminster, suggested that policemen should be equipped with canes so they 'could administer "on the spot" correction of minor offences by children, that miniature replicas of the old stocks should be erected in schoolroOms, so that child oflenders could be shamed in front of their fellows. He also suggested the publication of the names of parents who allowed their children to come before the Juvenile Courts more than once. When he first became a Magistrate 27 years ago, he said, it was neeessary to hold Children's Courts only four times a year. Now they were held weekly, and the number of offenders resembled a miniature football crowd. "A great deal could be done to cut down the numbers of child delinquents if the police were able to administer corporal punishment, as they did in the old days. . My suggestion about the stocks is a serious one. It might be a very good thing. Of course, children are not always to blame. Magistrates have not a great deal of power, and parents are often too lax."