“SOFT JUSTICE”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 278, 24 November 1945, Page 4

“SOFT JUSTICE”

CRIME AGAINST PROPERTY INCREASE IN DOMINION It was highly satisfactory to find that from 1890 to 1944 crime had been reduced from 38 to 15 per 10,000 persons in New Zealand, said Dr. O. C. Mazengarb, in an address before the Honorary Justices’ Association in Wellington. "But when one looks into the classified offences it is startling to see that in recent years, while crime generally has continued to diminish, there has been an alarming increase ip property crimes such as burglaries and thefts,” he continued. "Leaving out 1942, because of the considerable number of convictions for industrial offences which occurred in that year, and comparing the two previous years with the last two war years, it appears that, although the downward trend for other crimes has been maintained, the number of convictions for offences agaist property has greatly increased during that short time.” Dr. Mazengarb quoted the following figures:—■

•Increase over two years. •Decrease over two years. STEADILY-MOUNTING TOTAL. The Controller-General of Prisons drew attention last year to that “steadily-mounting total of offences against property.” He aptly commented that facilities lor honest employment were abundant and wages were good, and he ascribed the offences of a predatory nature to "a growing declension in moral standards.” e

"It might be more correct to say that the moral standard has changed,” said Dr. Mazengarb. "What is the cause of this changed attitude to private possessions? All over the world, political philosophy has been favouring the arbitrary acquisition and redistribution of property by the State. At different times the State has requisitioned land and services, gold and goods, business and bank shares. In America and in Australia, where there are written Constitutions, the Government can requisition these things only 'on just terms.’ But In Britain and New Zealand the State may acquire them on such terms as the party in power considers to be just, even although the dispossessed owners may regard these terms as very unjust.”

It was appropriate to point out that, when any Government ceased to regard private property as sacrosanct, the general respect which society in general had for private property must necessarily be lessened. Reports had been received of a crime wave in Australia. In one case a Melbourne Judge has ordered a birching and uttered a warning that he would consider ordering a flogging with the cat o' nine tails. In two other cases, a higher Court made substantial increases in the terms of imprisonment imposed by inferior tribunals. The N.S.W. Attorney-General intended to introduce a Bill to provide for the imposition of minimum sentences in cases of violence.

Public opinion, expressed through the Press, strongly favoured these stern measures. But coupled with that approval, there had been widespread criticism of the softness with which criminal justice had hitherto been administered. Attention had been drawn to the fact that until the outbreak the habit of higher Courts had been to reduce sentences on appeal, and by reducing sentences they had set too low a standard of punishment for the guidance of inferior Courts.

“The seriousness of the situation in Australia lies not merely in the fact that criminals are resorting to violence,” he said. “There are three other important factors. The police, in many instances, have been unable to sheet the crimes home to the wrongdoers. Secondly, perpetrators are known not to be old offenders, but younger men who have not previously been before the Court. Thirdly, the motive in nearly all these cases of violence is shown not to bn the gratification of a morbid or debased instinct, but the acquisition of money or of goods which are in short supply. A POSSIBLE CRIME WAVE. “If this crime wave can be regarded as a wartime or post-war development, it is timely to consider the position in this Dominion, and to see whether the administration of criminal justice here is reasonably fulfilling its function of protecting society. We have certainly had several instances of violence lately, and it may be just our good fortune that travel difficulties have prevented some wrongdoers Irom exploring the Dominion."

Whether or not, as suggested in Auckland, the crime wave had actually reached New Zealand, it was as well to inquire whether the same causative factors which had led to serious outbreaks in Australia were not already present in New Zealand. 'Do we have to wait tor some tragic week-end of crime or a multiplicity of violent acts before the Legislators, the Judges, the Press, and the public start to consider what ought to be done?" he asked.

To stem the tide of predatory crime, society could act through the Government, through the Judiciary, and through a properly informed" publicopinion. The New Zealand Parliament abolished capital and corporal punishment. Should those deterrents not be restored and the Judiciary trusted to impose those penalties as it formerly did in appropriate cases? If they were not restored, the Dominion would offer- attractions to evildoers from other lauds as soon as time and circumstances allowed. Another way in which the Government could act was by increasing the Police Force, and strengthening it with improved pay and conditions which would attract a sufficient number of the right class of men. “If it he a fact that many men are resigning from the force in order to enter more profitable vocations, I would not be surprised,” he said. “It must be disheartening to the police to find when they risk their lives and make arrests for burglary, robbery and theft, that the wrongdoers have been earning wages considerably higher than those paid in their services. What is the use of talking, as the Commissioner of Police did, of Is 6d a day as overtime for policemen when artisans and labourers receive double, treble andeven four times that amount for the overtime they work? It does not make sense.”

An increased force, a general rise in pay, and fewer hours of duty, might involve the expenditure of manythousands of pounds. But if industry could afford to nay the h’gher costs of production, society must pay whatever was necessary for the security of the goods which industry produced and for the protection of law-abiding citizens.

Offences against Property. All other Offences 1940 and 1941 1570 3020 1943 and 1944 2029 2574 — — . *459 1426