MENACE TO SOCIETY.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 May 1924, Page 5

MENACE TO SOCIETY.

THE SEXUAL OFFENDER. PREVALENCE OF CRIME. QUESTION OF CONTROL. ; t By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, May 30. Evidence upon the control of mental defectives and sexual perverts is being heard by the committee of inquiry set up for the purposeThe prevalence of sexual crime in the Dominion was disclosed in a table showing the number of sexual offenders under sentence in the prisons as on May 10, 1924. The figures were carnal knowledge and attempted carnal knowledge 29, indeeent assault 108, incest and attempted incest 14, sodomy and attempted sodomy 18, indecent acta 6, rape and attempted rape 20, indecent exposure 10, manslaughter 1. The total of 20'6 includes 21 prisoners who appear under more than one of the above headings. The actual number of individual offenders thus totals 185. The number of sentenced prisoners in custody at May 10 was 1071, therefore sexual offenders represent 17.27 per cent, of the prison population, or 18.7 of the sentenced male population. CONFINING DEFECTIVES, Sir Robert Stout, chairman of the Prisons Board, said there were some* times brought before the board several persons of one family who had offended against the laws. He had had one experience in which people obtaining charitable aid had done so for three generations, grandfather, father or mother and children. Some of these oases were traced and it was found that the grandparents had been originally in poorhouses in the Home Land. He expressed the opinion that no person should be allowed to land in New Zealand who was mentally defective. Sir Robert summed up: “I would say first that we have to reorganise the inequality of mankind; second, that heredity plays a most important part in the life of our offenders; and third, that the State has the right to prevent them from breeding. This could be done by confining them, not in an ordinary prison, but in homes, and I think the new criminal pro«|edure should make provision" for that form of treatment.”

Giving evidence, Dr. Clark, school medical officer at Napier, said he thought it was imperative that stricter inquiry should be made into the intelligence of immigrants and their family history with regard to mental defects find the intelligence of their children when they are accompanied by their families. We had to care for our own defectives, but it was either quixotic or stupid to import themCONTROL BY REGISTRATION. Sir Robert Stout expressed the opinion that the State should see that no person was allowed to land in the Dominion who was mentally defective And pointed out that at the present time that was not always insisted upon in the case of criminals. Evidence on behalf of the Education Department was given by the Director of Education (Mr. J. Caughley). He said it seemed inevitable that practically every child born of one feebleminded parent would itself .be feeble minded. It should be made impossible for any feeble minded person to transmit to the danger of society their feeble mindedness, and he therefore suggested the registration of every feeble minded person in New Zealand This could be done confidentially and at the present time was being done by the department. Cases could then be classified. It seemed essential to ensure that all feeble minded girls, in particular, should be thoroughly guarded. After the classification was completed a recommendation might be made as to the form of the care and (he training that should be provided by (he Government in each case. He was satisfied that by adopting the method outlined the present rapid increase could at once be stemmed.

DEFICIENCY IN CHILDREN. TREATMENT MUST BE COMPULSORY SEGREGATION OR STERILISATION! Wellington, Last Night. At the sexual inquiry Dr. Clark, school Medical officer, Napier, dealt with mental deficiency in children. One of the most regrettable consequences of allowing the defective and the accidentally retarded to remain in classes for which they were unsuited was that they developed a feeling of inferiority to their fellows because they could not compete with them on equal terms. This feeling of inferiority inevitably dragged in its train a feeling of resentment against society. To this hatred was due a large number of apparently motiveless crimes, such as burning down schools, etc. A new society must ibe provided for such children. After training in special classes they could be returned to the ordinary class, when their “leeway” was made up. Unstable perverts, etc., could go to a special farm school, while imbeciles and idiots could go to fin asylum. At present the wishes of the parents were consulted too much, added the doctor. The education of defectives must be free and compulsory, and once admitted, parents must have no power to remove them, for segregation for inmates of farm schools must be lifelong unless sterilisation was adopted. He felt that public opinion was at present opposed to such a course. Each special class should be under the supervision of a medical man with a knowledge of child psychology. Questioned, witness said it did not follow that desexualisation was always effective. If an operation were performed anti-social tendencies were liable to continue. He thought sterilisation would be approved generally, perhaps in the near future, as ajn optional course.

Professor -T •$. Tennent expressed the opinion that there was not more than one per cent, of the school population that could not be satisfactorily handled in a reasonably equipped school. The public were inclined to brand as feebleminded those who did not conform to the ordinary educational standard. He found that feeble-minded children could be effectively treated along certain lines, for instance, by the development of the kinesthetic side of the ability displayed. To brand a boy or girl as a failure in school was the simplest wav of assuring the failure of that Th# moat wA ia Naw)

Zealand was the establishment of psychological clinics for the diagnosis of cases, the prescription being according to the causes of defectiveness. Dr. E. Marsden, asaiatant Diretor of Education, submitted « proposed scheme, bv which defective children might be discovered in public schols. He dealt with and advocated mental tests for the classification of pupils and the establishment of adjustment classes. The committee adjourned until next Monday.