YOUNG OFFENDERS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 30, 30 October 1942, Page 4

YOUNG OFFENDERS

Most peoplq will agree with the statement by the chief probation officer, Mr. Dallard, in his annual report, that “reclamative policies in penal methods are at best an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff,” and that it is the initial lapse into crime that should be averted. How to prevent that initial lapse is a problem that has been forced upon public attention by the incidence of juvenile delinquency and comments upon the trend of it by magistrates from time to time. Mr. Dallard poses thp problem, and answers it, in this way:

Is it (he asks) that our, methods of penal treatment are not adequately deterrent to prevent such a lapse, or is it that our social code and our ethical standards are at fault? The initial lapse (he answers) is not the fault of the penal methods, but is rather an indictment of our social, institutions whose function it is; to, instil the fundamentals of moral conduct—the home, the school, and the Church,

In this answer the functions and responsibilities of the home, the school and the Church as moral correctives are rightly stressed. But for those who choose to disregard ethical teachings, the consequences should be sufficiently impressive to act as a deferrent. This consideration is essential and important enough to question whether existing penal methods are adequate deterrents against first lapses. The chief probation officer’s statement that while it may be satisfactory to observe a steady diminution in the number of older offenders who relapse into crime, “it is less satisfactory to observe that the criminal ranks are so readily filled by a steady inflow of young offenders, and largely first offenders,” invites a questioning attitude. It is no doubt desirable that penal methods should have some regard for the reclamative possibilities hi the young offender, but it is also essential that these should be strict enough, and impressive enough as deterrents, to give adequate protection to the community against the activities of his kind. The prevalent feeling is that they are not.