Children’s Courts Avoid Publicity and Give Young Offenders Another Chance

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27094, 31 May 1949, Page 2

Children’s Courts Avoid Publicity and Give Young Offenders Another Chance

NOTES , FOR WOMEN • *

Every now and again a boy “ borrows ” a bicycle or a girl “ takes ” an article from a shop. These are offences against the law. But when the borrower and the taker have not attained the age of 17 it is laid down in New Zealand that all such offenders should be brought before a Children’s Court. Here there is no publicity, newspaper reports of the proceedings are not allowed, and only once a year, when the chief officer of the Child Welfare Department presents his report to the stipendiary magistrate and associates of the Children’s Court, is there any official reference to the court appearances of children.

Since the passing of the Child Welfare Act in 1925 Children’s Courts have been established everywhere in New Zealand. In Auckland and Wellington there are separate buildings used exclusively for this work. In Dunedin, where there have been only 113 court appearances in the last year, the courts are held in the magistrate’s rooms on a day when there is little other business.

A young boy has “ converted ” a bicycle to his own use. What happens to him? No case is heard until a full report has been furnished by the Child Welfare Department. The police notify the department, and a representative visits the bov’s home, talks to him and to his parents, and finds out about his opportunities for recreation, his pocket money and his relations with parents and brothers and sisters. From the school a picture of the boy in his school surroundings is obtained, and sometimes special investigations are needed—an estimate of intelligence, for example, or a doctor’s report where there is some marked physical or mental abnormality.

The ttoy is then summoned to attend the court for the hearing of his case. With his parents he sits in a waiting room until he is called before the court of three, the magistrate and his two associates, who are specially appointed because of their knowledge of children. The brief facts leading to the charge are told by the police officer, who is usually not in uniform, and either the clerk or the magistrate asks in a simple form, avoiding all formidable legal phraseology, if the boy did take the bicycle. No oath is required of children.

When the boy has been heard, the parents can then give their interpretation of events. With all the reports before them, and having previously read them through—with the boy, the parents, the child welfare officer and no one else present—the magistrate and his associates are able to talk simply to boy and parents, and to decide what is to be done. In the majority of cases boys are “ admonished and discharged.”

If it appears to the magistrate that there is poor discipline in the home or that the morale of the, home is in a low state, the boy may be placed under supervision for a period. This , means that -one of the child welfare officers visits the home regularly, helping to re-establish family discipline —not as in the old probation system, which meant that the boy visited the probation officer and there were two authorities set up, the home and the probation officer. If the home is completely unco-operative,. so bad or so disorganised that there is thought to be 'little possibility of the boy becoming a good citizen, then he becomes a ward of the State. Not all children who come before the Children’s Courts are there as delinquents. however. Some of them have been the victims of poor parents, but nevertheless they are charged as being indigent, not under proper control, living in a detrimental environment or neglected. From these poor homes come the majority of the children who become State wards; the State takes over the functions of the parents and gives the training and the regular conditions of environment essential in making good citizens.