YOUNG CRIMINALS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 366, 7 March 1932, Page 4

YOUNG CRIMINALS.

Dea*h Penalty and Birch to be Abolished. GOVERNMENT'S BILL. (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, January 11. The law relating to children will be brought into accord with modern ideas if the Government’s Children Bill is passed. The Bill has already been announced as being included in the business of the present session, and it will be piloted by the Home Secretary, Sir Herbert Samuel. It is understood that provision will probably be made for the abolition of the death penalty and of corporal punishment as regards persons under twenty-one years of age. At present the lowest age at which the death penalty can be imposed is sixteen. The names “ reformatories ” and “ industrial schools” will be abandoned. The title “ Home Office Schools,” now widely used in official circles, will become general. There may be a modification in law affecting the “ age of criminal re-* sponsibility ” —at present seven years. The power of the Courts, especially Magistrates’ Courts, to order imprisonment for young persons will be restricted and the Home Secretary will be more immediately concerned with these