YOUNG OFFENDERS

Waipa Post, Volume 36, Issue 2145, 17 April 1928, Page 7

YOUNG OFFENDERS

HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM. Since the early days of the nineteenth century the people of this country have Been engaged in amending their criminal law on certain easilydefined lines with a deliberation which it may be hoped its advantages since it seems to be inevitable, though it may be regarded as excessive. The last link in the chain that has thus been gradually forged since the time of Romilly, if not of Howard, is the report of a Departmental Committee on the Treatment of Young Offenders, which is /of first importance to the numerous persons who are interested in the prevention of crime by punishment or otherwise, and who occupy positions of all degrees of responsibility, or no responsibility at all. Its scope is very wide, its substance bears constant signs of compromise, and it suffers from tha defects characteristic of multiple authorship; but the Commissioners have spared no pains to make their inquiries complete, and, in oflmost all cases, have worked out their conclusions to completeness. If, therefore, the report is not epochmaking and contains no new principles to guide future action, it is invaluable as recording the stage that has been reached in one particular direction, and as indicating how accepted p'rin-

ciples may bdst be applied in the immediate future. —Sir Harry Stophen in the Edinburgh Review.