EARLY PREVENTION OF CRIME

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22135, 3 July 1937, Page 20

EARLY PREVENTION OF CRIME

TO YBM BUITOB 0» THS PtIESS Sir, —It was indeed good to read in your columns of Mrs M. C. Hendrie s strong anneal for “the problem child.’ I should like to thank you for reporting it. and also Mrs Hendrie for making it; all the more because, as an old prison visitor. I know but too well how often our de’inquents showed in childhood or at adrle cence the “antisocial” traits which they might then have been helped to overcome, to the great benefit of society later. In Jersey City, United States, such a society as M v s Hendrie asks fo v has been inaugurated, and has reduced the number of children “in trouble” from more than COO to only 33 in a few years. No case is sent on to the Juvenile Court except on its recommendations. \Vb°n a child breaks the law a plain-clothes officer connected with this bureau of social service visits the home to obtain particulars, and reports to the head, who is an rs-'-ir.tant suneri-tendent c f specially chosen, evidently, for his understanding and p r> l i ’enc'v He is as* s’-ted by a <dnff that include- t-uancy officers. doctor, psychologist. and psychiatrist, and he and advises not only the eM I d. but also th° narents and teachers.

Had we seme such child guidanceclinic to which p;.rents and teachers, too, could bring a for h-10, much of our serious crime would cease. No subnormal murderer of little children, e.g., would ever have fot past such a body in his own childhood. No habit of stealing "to get even" or "because something makes me" would have persisted till it became second nature. A vocational guider could, on the other hand, if attached to such a clinic, show the way to make the budding citizen into the best possible asset for his community. Can it not be done? Cannot Chri'-t----church five the country a lead in this, as We 1 tin gt on has given th° lead in protecting the public against the reckless younr? motorist, bv rc-edvea-lion rather than represden?—Yours, etc..

B. E. BAUGHAN. Akaroa, July 2. 1937.