ATTITUDE TO LIFE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29189, 27 April 1960, Page 18

ATTITUDE TO LIFE

Lord Kilmuir On Juvenile Crime

Unless every man and women of good will, including church workers, teachers and ordinary citizens, gave assistance in improving the moral standard and attitude to life of the younger generation all the contribution by the State would not be enough. Viscount Kilmuir, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, said last evening in Christchurch when asked to comment on the problem of juvenile crime in society.

During his term as Home Secretary from 1951-1954 Lord Kilmuir (then Sir David Maxwell Fyfe) was responsible for all penal institutions in England and it was during this time, he said, that the first short-term detention centre for young offenders was established there. Others had since been established and had worked very well. In these institutions a minimum of three months and a maximum of six months "rugged treatment” was given, with plenty of exercise and at the same time instruction. For younger offenders, attendance centres which were the equivalent of being kept in at school had been established. The great thing in dealing with juvenile crime was to select the best treatment for the offender as well as for the offence. Lord Kilmuir said.

He had always impressed on Magistrates sitting in juvenile Courts to take great care as a matter of principle to get the fullest report on family circumstances and the psychological aspects of the crime before deciding on the treatment of the offender.

There were six different treatments for juvenile criminals in Britain. These were probation, attendance at an approved school, attendance centres, detention centres, Borstal and prison. “We are particularly interested in this subject,” Lord Kilmuir said. A special committee which had been set up under Lord Ingleby to review procedures and see if better ones could be found, would soon be making its report, he said. A White Paper prepared by the present Home Secretary (Mr R. A. Butler) on the penal system in a changing society envisaged a considerable building programme all along the line, he said, “but I do want to give my personal view that the governmental side which includes bringing the police force up to the best stage of efficiency in the detection of crime, and the penal policy must be backed up by society,” Lord Kilmuir said.