Punishment Of Crime

Northern Advocate, 11 August 1938, Page 9

Punishment Of Crime

[Special to “Northern Advocate.”! WELLINGTON. This Day. “The best interests of the public are certainly, not served by an indiscrimin-

ate recourse to imprisonment, with its severance of social and domestic tics, its stigma, and ether hurtful consequences that may prejudice the ultimate rehabilitation of the offender,” states the Chief Probation Officer, Mr B. L. Dallard, in his annual report presented in the House of Representatives. Value cf Probation. ••Punishment which society prescribes to prevent certain conduct injurious to itself may, unless properly conditioned to the facts and circum- j stances, actually work injuries to society itself; hence the necessity for the exercise el careful discrimination in deciding the fate of an offender,” said Mr Dallard. “Probation offers, in selected cases, a constructive alternative to imprisonment. * “It should be borne in mind that it is by no means entirely divorced from the idea of punishment. Apart from the shock ci discovery and the shame of the proceedings, which in themselves in many cases are sufficient to cause the offender to live an unexceptionable life thereafter, the law provides for the imposition of exacting conditions restricting the liberty of the offender and conditioning his conduct so that he is required to conform to a more ordered and disciplined mode of living. “The stipulation that the probationer must make restitution obliges him to get clown to regular work, which is socially advantageous as \ with the alternative of imprisonment, ; where the offender is a charge upon . the community. j Exceptional Cases. “Notwithstanding the positive ad- [ vantages ct probation over imprison-, ment in suitable cases, it must be kept j, in mind that there are many cases j where institutional treatment is defin- j itcly preferable both in the interests i of the offender and of society. For i example, where young offenders are i associated in ‘hoodlum or criminal j gangs,’ it is desirable that these should : be broken up, and those concerned re- i moved from these baneful influences j and subjected to the ordered regime | of an institution. j “In the case of certain classes of sex | offenders, who show unrestrained anti- ! social propensities which make them a | public menace, particularly to chil- j dren, segregation is essential. Again, with crimes of widespread prevalence, | it may be necessary to have recourse j to the more rigorous sanction of the \ law to stem what is commonly de- > scribed as the imitative trend. It is an j accepted axiom that, from a deterrent j point of view, the more generous im- j pulses of the law are not generally j appropriate to crimes involving delib- ' eration and brutality.” I