CRIME IN THE DOMINION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22098, 31 October 1933, Page 8

CRIME IN THE DOMINION

An increase in the number of crimes of violence cannot be regarded with equanimity by any community, and Mr Justice Herdman’s comments at Auckland last week on the prevalence of this type of offence in New Zealand will have forcibly directed public attention to a disturbing development. The learned judge does not accept the economic depression as answerable for a tendency towards an increase in cases of murder, and inclines to the view that the disinclination of the State to visit the extreme penalty upon persons convicted of the crime may in part account for it. A disturbing circumstance in connection with murders that have occurred in the Dominion is that there have been several cases in which no arrest has been made. In the latest report upon the Police Force it is shown that in 1,932-33 arrests were made in the case of thirteen out of fifteen murders. In the preceding year the number of murders was less by two, and in four cases no arrest resulted. At the present time the police have two murder investigations on their hands, in one of which the possibility of a solution seems to be becoming remote. It is not permissible to accept the number of serious crimes that are left unsolved as a reflection on the zeal of the Police Force, but the question that must be kept constantly before the Department is the competency of the force’s equipment to deal efficiently with the modern law-breaker. In London the aim of the Metropolitan Police at present is to combat the criminal by an increasing use of the aids which science and education are making available to law-enforcers and law-breakers alike, and it is in some measure reassuring to know that this. phase of crime detection is not being neglected in New Zealand. Mr Justice Reed had occasion to recall a few days ago,-in the course of an observation

upon the value of finger-print records, that his own experience in defending a murderer who was hanged on the mute testimony of two thumb-prints on a sheet of glass had convinced him of “ the uselessness of attempting to combat such evidence.” The Police Commissioner’s report provides its own support of the judge’s declaration. In 1932-33 finger-print evidence was collected in twenty-three cases of breaking and entering, and convictions were obtained in every case, while the tabulation of finger-impressions made it possible for the police to identify 213 persons as previous offenders who would otherwise have been dealt with as first offenders. The growth of the Criminal Registration branch of the Police Department may be gauged from the fact that the number of finger-prints kept on record has increased from 3500 in 1904 to 47,306 in 1932-33. There can be no question as to the value of this service. The dubious proposition which is somewhat widely advanced by uninformed people that times of financial depression are reflected in an increase in serious crime is scarcely supported in the Commissioner’s report. The number of cases of robbery and aggravated robbery that were reported showed a decrease in 1932-33 from the previous year, but arrests were effected in a minority of these cases. Ordinary burglaries have declined in number, while the number of apprehensions has increased. Convictions for drunkenness have continued to decrease, the arrests in 1932 being the lowest since 1878, when the population of New Zealand was not much more than a fourth Of the present population. It must be presumed that the restricted spending-power of the community is a factor in explaining the statistics relative to drunkenness that is as important as the growing tendency of the people towards sobriety.