CRIME IN AMERICA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26199, 9 July 1946, Page 5

CRIME IN AMERICA

WAVE OF LAWLESSNESS CRIMINAL RANKS SWELLING WASHINGTON, July 7. “America is facing a potential army of 6,000,000 criminals and an ever-in-creasing wave of lawlessness which is feeding the criminal ranks with a never-ending supply of recruits.” said the Federal Bureau of Investigation director, Mr J. E. Hoover, broadcasting. “Law enforcement to-day is facing one of its most gigantic tasks. Our homes and lives are every day threatended by a vast army of lawbreakers

which is 10 times the number of students in the colleges and universities/’ said Mr Hoover. He added that America’s crime increase so far in 1946 was even greater than the 12.4 per cent, recorded last year. Every 20.1 seconds last year a serious crime was committed and every 6.4 minutes someone was feloniously assaulted or slain. Mr Hoover attributed the crime wave to the recession of moral fortitude, laxity of parental control, lowered moral standards, social and economic conditions and abuses, and maladministration of the penal system. Emphasising the need for better parental control, he said that lack of interest in the fundamentals of matrimony and the proper rearing of children were cause for concern. “ Every home must become a sanctuary for good citizenship and not, as in too many instances to-day, a breeding place for criminals.” Another cause of crime was the prostitution of the parole system by the whims of well-wishing, mawkish sentimentalists. Men and women who should never be paroled were released to prey on the public again. It was time it was realised that the guiding principle in judging every individual case should be protection of the public.