JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22776, 11 January 1936, Page 10

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

The Magistrate’s Court returns for last year reveal a regrettable increase in juvenile delinquency in this district. There is as yet no information respecting the crime statistics in other districts, but it need not be assumed that such an alarming tendency as the local returns have disclosed is peculiar to Dunedin. The number of cases before the local Juvenile Court last year was 50 more than in the previous year. What is even more disturbing, however, is the fact that the figures show a progressive increase in the total of juvenile appearances since 1932. In that year 213 children were brought before the court. In 1933 the total was 266, in 1934 it was 277, and in 1935 it jumped to 327. It is difficult to determine causes for such an unwholesome movement in the figures relating to juvenile crime, but it is more than probable that it can be definitely related to a lack of proper parental control. In these days the plea is too often heard from some parents that their children are uncontrollable. Such a plea, & as it seems to us, may justly be regarded as a reflection on the parents themselves rather than on the unfortunate children. It is possible, of course, that the demoralising effects of unemployment are making themselves felt on the younger generation. It may conceivably be harder to maintain discipline in the home when the normal routine -js gravely disturbed. Yet the fact remains that parents have a very grave responsibility in the matter of the early training of their children, and the laxity which fails to impress on the young mind the difference between right and wrong is in itself entirely reprehensible. The years of adolescence are the habit-forming years. Bad habits may : perhaps be corrected by stern action in a court of law. But the pity of it is that faults of conduct should ever be allowed to develop to the stage where such summary correction should become necessary.