A world-wide crime wave
It is unrealistic to suppose that there is much correlation between the level of sentencing and the amount of crime, says the Deputy Secretary for Justice (Mr B. J. Cameron), as much as we would like to find simple solutions to crime, and especially violent crime. “A resurgence of violent crime over the last 15 to 20 years has been almost world-wide. In the United States, where penalties by New Zealand standards are very harsh, crimes of violence have escalated dramatically. In New Zealand itself, by way of example, the amount of aggravated robbery has risen in the face of consistently heavy sentences imposed by the Supreme Court.
“This is not an argument against long sentences in some cases. Unlike Mr Brunt I have confidence in the good sense of judges and magistrates and their concern for the public interest — including the interests of victims. They do not and should not bend before gusts of popular emotion but they should be — and are — influenced by the general climate of responsible opinion. "Our courts are by no
means loath to pass heavy sentences. Thus in the two years 1976 and 1977 more than 100 offenders received prison sentences of five years or more for crimes other than murder. “It would be neither profitable nor proper for me to discuss individual sentences. Judges and magistrates are expected to take into account all the circumstances, both of the offence and of the offender. They are not infallible. The corrective is the right for either the prosecution or the defence to appeal against a sentence that is too lenient or too harsh, as the case may be. “It is important to realise that on appeal, sentences are revised upwards as well as downwards, and that the vast majority of appeals by convicted persons against their sentence fail. One objective of an appeal system is precisely to reduce the disparity that Mr Brunt criticises. But complete consistency is a chimera.
"Minimum sentences are always apt to work injustices. Any minimum high enough to be meaningful in bad cases will be excessive in other cases — for example, where there has been gross provocation.” X
A world-wide crime wave
Press, 20 February 1979, Page 19
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in