PROBLEM OF HOME

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29908, 23 August 1962, Page 17

PROBLEM OF HOME

Environment In Crime fN Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN. August 22. Until the problem of the unsatisfactory home was tackled there would be little progress in the halting of youthful crime, according to the Secretary for Justice (Dr. J. L. Robson).

Dr. Robson was addressing the first biennial conference of the New Zealand Dental Association.

“It hits us right in the face when we w’ho sit on a Parole Board are often obliged to discharge an inmate to the very environment which made him a criminal.” he said.

Dr. Robson said that although most broken homes did not produce offenders, there was ’ little doubt that criminality seemed to thrive in them.

Dr. Robson said the drinking parent, the over-indulgent parent, and the neglectful or indifferent parent were other contributing causes. Boredom was another major problem, and it was only a short step from that to hooliganism, thence to vandalism and to car conversion. He said that alcohol was a major element in the personal history of at least one-third of offenders.

“It is too plain that a substantia! number of young offenders are hard drinkers by the time they are 21.” He thought the remedy for youthful offending involved the formulation of a satisfactory moral code and the ensuring that leisure time was used to the best advantage.