Call to ‘get tough’ with offenders

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 21

Call to ‘get tough’ with offenders

PA Wellington / Tougher treatment of young criminal offenders is needed but the carrying of long batons and firearms is not the answer, according to a police report. The author of the report, an Otahuhu senior constable and youth aid officer, Constable Graham Mattson, has said that after six weeks spent studying juvenile crime in the United States, it was clear to him that laws in New Zealand must be changed—not weaponry. His overwhelming impression from talking to policemen in the United States was that if they could turn the clock back, they would not carry long batons or firearms. They said it was a challenge rather than a deterrent, inciting young people to violence. The Reagan Administration had started tightening laws relating to juvenile offenders after the rehabilitative, liberal approach had failed, he said. In New Zealand, the liberal approach was driving police to indifference in their job. “In my report, I phrased it as a need for more meaningful consequences for juvenile offenders, but I think ‘get tough’

is a fair interpretation,” he said.

The minimum age a juvenile could be charged with an offence, except murder and manslaughter, was 14. This needed to be lowered to 12 because many of New Zealand’s chronic offenders were 12 and 13, the report said. “I think it would be fair to say police are very, very frustrated by the laws. Juveniles do commit serious offences and the end result is the youth is out and at it again before the file is put away.” He said the police were not as enthusiastic in pursuing or apprehending juveniles as they would be if they could see some “proper” outcome after a long and sometimes involved case. “To put it bluntly, some just can’t be bothered when all it comes down to is a warning.” Recent proposals had been made to ensure parents were present when interviewing a young offender. Youths were often less likely to tell the truth if parents were present, he said, and the proposal would delay a sometimes very important promptness in attempting to elicit the truth.

In Dallas, Texas, laws which made the procedure before interviewing long and involved had led to a drop in the number of juveniles being apprehended. In 1971, with a population of about 750,000, about 11,000 Dallas juveniles were arrested for serious offences. Last year, the population had risen to 980,000 and arrests had dropped to 6000. “The police here are hamstrung by laws. It serves no good purpose for anyone—not for society and not for the young people themselves. The justice system has lost sight of the ideal of truth.”

In his report, he said if juveniles were old enough and Capable of committing serious criminal offences, they were old enough and capable of personal responsibility and individual accountability. He said New Zealand was able to stand back and look and learn from other countries.

His report, which also looks at community prevention, schools, solvent and drug abuse and police equipment, has been submitted to the national police headquarters for consideration.