DELINQUENCY AND HOME NEGLECT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19199, 16 June 1924, Page 6

DELINQUENCY AND HOME NEGLECT.

The investigations of the Commission which has been appointed to make recommendations respecting the treatment of mental defectives appears to be taking a wide scope, including some matters which are not necessarily related to mental deficiency, unless that condition is supposed to characterise all phases of criminality. Interesting evidence concerning various aspects of a complex problem was given during the sittings of the Commission in Auckland. The subject of juvenile delinquency was treated in an optimistic spirit by Mr Poynton, S.M. In the opinion of this experienced magistrate, people are “becoming hysterical about juvenile depravity.” He points out that in the last few years there has been a substantial decrease in the number of charges brought against very young people. In 1921 the courts dealt with 1391 cases, as compared with 1677 cases in 1915. Mr Poynton declares that there is Jess criminality among the juvenile population of New Zealand than in any other country in the world with the exception of South Australia. “Our boys and girls,” he says emphatically, “are not getting worse.” This welcome testimony from an expert observer may alleviate' some extravagant apprehensions, though it should not weaken the endeavour to make the state of matters still more satisfactory. There is force in Mr Poynton’s reminder that much of the recorded delinquency has its origin in “the universal spirit of mischief in children” finding misdirected expression in offences which, . though not negligible, do not possess a very serious import. There will probably be difference of opinion respecting the suggestion that no record whatever should be kept of first offences of a minor kind, and perhaps also in regard to the recommendation that “whipping should be permissible in all cases.” Mr Poynton strongly emphasises the factor of parental neglect in producing juvenile criminality, and in this view he has the support of general and expert judgment. A former probation officer, giving evidence before the Commission, said that “one of the root causes of delinquency was lack of proper control and home restraint.” Parental indifference or weakness is responsible for the trouble in a far larger degree than any neglect in the schools, where the general moral influence is actively good. Apart from juvenile offences, parental shortcomings are indicated as an original cause of much of the sexual crime prevalent in the dominion. An undue proportion of the sexual convicts in the prisons consists of comparatively young men born in New Zealand. Dr Murray, who produced the statistics relative to the matter, was asked by the chairman of the Commission if he could give any reason for the high percentage of New Zealanders in this category. “Yes,” replied the medical officer for the Prison Department; “it is largely because of the lack of parental control and home restraint. That really is the root cause of the depravity.’’ The general trend of expert opinion in this direction cannot be ignored, and the problem calls for concentrated and searching investigation on the part of social reformers.