COURT CORRECTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 189, 12 August 1933, Page 9

COURT CORRECTION.

Important New Bill Planned in Britain. MAKING GOOD CITIZENS. (British Official Wireless.) / RUGBY, August 11. The Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, provides for the organisation of Juvenile Courts, which as far as possible are to be entirely removed from ordinary Police Courts. The need is felt to be for Courts which will not be sentimental but sympathetic and will act in the capacity of a parent.

The number of offences eommitted by young persons points to the need for these reforms. Twenty-one per cent of the indictable offences in 19.31 were committed by persons under the age of 16.

Experience shows that it is better to deal with young persons at 14 or 15 than later. For instance the percentage of successes in industrial schools is 85 to 00 per cent, whereas the figure for the Borstal institutions, which deal with children at a later age, is 65 per cent.

The Home Office has sent circulars to magistrates, local authorities and the polico explaining the Act, accompanied by rules for its interpretation and pointing out that the object of the Juvenile Court is not to punish but to make good citizens.