LUCK OF HOME TRAINING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4681, 31 March 1924, Page 3

LUCK OF HOME TRAINING.

JUVENILE OFFENDERS.

“ TOO MUCH SYMPATHY.”

“ It is always the young people who >.eem to .be stealing now,” said a C'ristchurch Magistrate, the other day.

The natural comment on this statemnet would be:- What is wiong with the young people? A man who has brushed up against hardened criminals and first offenders for the last 3(> or 40 years attributes the growing percentage of wayward young people largely, to the lack of parental control. regarding which eft-repeated warnings have issued from every magistrate' in New Zealand. “ Many of these thefts arc the work of. people in their twenties. How do yon account for that ?” he was asked. The police officer who discussed the question with a reporter replied: •• Vou would think they would have sense at that age, but it is the eiv vironment in which they have been brought up. • Take Sunday nights. Numbers of young fellows and girls are about the streets till all hours, and they won’t take any warning. “Juvenile crime is not quite so bad at present, though cases are frequent. Last year the magistrate ordered floggings, and the action had a good effect. In practically every instance no’ second offence has been reported. “ Pe.ty thieving is on the increase,” he continued, proceeding to discuss other offences. “Thefts of articles from motor, cars are also common, hut much of that is due to the carelessness of the owners in leaving the articles in the car. Bicycles are, of course, the greatest trouble, r think many are committed by hoys, who ride the machines for a while and then discard them. 'What about the sentences for

theft ?” “Well, there is too much sym pathy for this class of people, and they only laugh at it. There are well-intentioned people who reckon they can. reform the offenders, but it takes years of knocking about the criminal class to discover that you can’t do it I don't think that an habitual criminal has ever been ?e--formed in New Zealand He might not come back to a New Zealand gaol, but probably he will be found in. Australian or American prisons. While I say there is too much sympathy in many instances, I don’t mean to convey that lenient treatment should not be given to some first offenders. Tn a good number of cases, however, a short sentence of hard labour, I think, would have a good effect, and they would not want to go back to gaol. “As regards the young people, the whole thing is the home surroundings. That has. most to do with it.”