THE BAD LAD.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 March 1924, Page 6

THE BAD LAD.

■hoA t to deal with him.

COMMISSIONER'S SUGGESTION'S. “The bad lad” was the subject dealt with by Mr. Alexander Paterson, one of H.M. Commissioners of Prisons, before a session of the Training College Association at the Educational Associations Conference in London. “How man.x bad lad<s are there?” asked Mr. Paterson. Every year 7000 boys were brought up at police courts and put on probation, 1500 boys were sent to Borstal institutions. There were another thousand who went to prison who had never previously been in any sort of trouble at all.

“I will make this rough guess,” he added, “that of every hundred boys leaving elementary schools, one is a

"bad lad” in the aense that he comes sooner or later into conflict with the

Speaking from his experience among all the many bad lads he had known. Mr. Paterson said he had come to the conclusion that there were necessarily three elements in’the commission of every crime. There was first the desire to do something wrong— a desire which everybody had •at some time or another; secondly, the opportunity to satisfy that desire; and thirdly, the absence or extreme weakness of any inhibition to the contrary. It was in respect to the last-mentioned very necessary ingredient to the commission of a crime that one 'boy was different from the other 99 boys in a hundred. The 99 had been supplied by homo or school-training with an inhibition which the hundredth boy lacked. What psychologists called an inhibition theologians called conscience, but the inhibition often arose from the character of one’s social environment.

WHERE INHIBITIONS ARE LEARNED.

The lad going to Eton or Harrow learned a thousand and one inhibi-tions—-things one must not <lo and must not say. A secondary school boy would learn 500 inhibitions, while in the elementary schools there were fewer inhibitions.

The first thing to do with the had lad was to study his desire, and the second to encourage the ordinary growth of inhibitions. How were these things being done? In this country we did not agree with the old methods 01 death or detention in the treatment of the bad lad who came within the clutches of the law. Therefore, throughout our system a number of new methods were being tried. It was a remarkable fact that more of the bad lads were being dealt with out of the institutions than inside. From one point of view it was more economic. The cost for every boy on probation was probably £5 to £lO a year, but it cost up to £l5O to have a. boy in an institution. Further, they could keep a boy in the natural freedom of home life that was far. far better 'than the best institution which they could provide. Probation was still new, 'but it was growing every year. ' 'levying tribute to the Borstal instituMr. Paterson said that their

“houses" promoted the growth of inhibitions. Of every 10 Borstal boys, seven never got into trouble again. But they etill had bad lads under 21 entering prison. Those responsible for the prisons would like to shut the gates in front of every lad under 21, but they were the servants of the courts and they had to open the gates. The Prison Commissioners, however, were doing their 'best. He believed that in time, if only 'they had special places to which bad lads might be remanded —not prison—it might be possible to determine more scientifically what really was wrong with the lad and what sort of treatment or training should be prescribed for him. WHAT TEACHERS COULD DO. There were three very clear ways in which the teaching profession of the country could help the bad lad. When he was at school he was very often-the least attractive fellow in the class, and that was the kind of lad upon whom the teacher should concentrate more than upon all the others in the class. In regard to the 'boys’ after-school life, there was a natural temptation to every teacher to keep mostly in touch with his best boys, but it should be the duty of the teacher to keep particularly in touch with the bad lad. to make sure that he got a jo-b, and to look after the way in which he spent his evenings. Mr. Paterson. had been wondering whether it was not possible for the teaching profession to play a very great part in the administration of the Probation of Offenders Act. (Clieere.)

His third suggestion was that teachers should be honorary probation officers to whom the regular probation should pass on cases. If it were possible to get the teachers to act in this way it would strengthen enormously the adminstration of the Probation of Offenders Act.