STUDY OF CRIMINALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20990, 29 September 1931, Page 11

STUDY OF CRIMINALS.

PLEA FOR UNDERSTANDING. OFFENCES AND CAUSES. An appeal for a greater understanding of criminals, and especially the contributing causes of crime, was made by Mr. N. M. Richmond, president of the Howard League for Penal Reform, in an address to the Auckland Rotary Club at its luncheon yesterday. The speaker said it was necessary to study the fundamental causes of offences against the social code from scientific standpoints. "The average person is inclined to overlook the question of crime as something rather disagreeable, which is being attended to by those in authority," Mr. Richmond said. "Nowadays, the theory that criminals have some physical characteristic distinguishing them from ordinary people has been discarded, and it is accepted that there are numbers of type of offenders." Mr. Richmond went on to indicate the modern attitude toward criminals and the growing appreciation of the need to begin with fundamentals in corrective work. He suggested attention to physical and social environment, in which town-planning played an important part, and educational methods with a view to providing definite interests for the young mind as means of diminishing crime. The immediate problem, in his view, was deserving of the efforts of experts and very highly-trained men. Endeavours should be made in the direction of classifying the types of offenders he had mentioned In moving a vote of thanks to the speaker, Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., said he had listened to the address with the same interest as others of the audience. "All justices and magistrates have to do with criminals is simply to administer the law as it stands," Mr. Cutten pointed out. "We do not have the opportunity to give effect to our own views and so we do not form them "At the same time, I must say that there has been a marked tendency in recent years to make penalties reformative as much as possible. This is a development of considerable importance to our system of justice. I must admit that I remain somewhat old-fashioned in regard to dealing with the problem. The most important factor, to my mind, in doing away with crime is the training of, young people. The suggestions made at the meeting are important and well worth inquiry, but unquestionably the most important is the training of the., young. Tho work should be directed toward producing self-control and a>proper understanding of the duties of life."