Roper report too diverse?

Press, 14 March 1987, Page 4

Roper report too diverse?

PA Wellington The Roper report on violence suffers from

trying to be “all things to all people,” says the director of the Mental

Health Foundation, Dr Max Abbott. Though supporting the report over-all, Dr Abbott said more work needed to be done to “sort the wheat from the chaff” because there were too many recommendations. “Although correctly recognising that violence has many causes and needs to be addressed on many levels if real progress is to be made, the report has too many recommendations and suffers from not giving priority to those most likely to have positive effects,” Dr Abbott said. “Many recommendations, if implemented with vigour, can be expected to help violence.” But some recommendations were vague, some difficult or impossible to put into action, some were largely irrelevant and some could be counterproductive. The Government and the Opposition would be tempted to implement

those recommendations relating to the police, sentencing and the law while fudging on most of the social measures where real effects could be expected. If this happened it would result in electionyear window-dressing and little of substance. He said the committee left politicians with a difficult task by insisting that all recommendations be implemented together as a total package. But in the long term, if the private sector helped with support and resources, the report could be the framework for real progress, he said.

Dr Abbott praised the report because it managed to tap the views of all sectors of society over a short time and come out with a comprehensive report. He also praised the Government for promising swift action in implementing the recommendations.