CRIME AND ITS PENALTY.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18808, 2 December 1932, Page 3

CRIME AND ITS PENALTY.

THE WAY TO REFORM. A JUDGMENT FROM EXPERIENCE. (From a Correspondent.) LONDON, Oct. 27. Sir Henry Dickens retired last week from the post of Common Serjeant in the City of London. The following are extracts from an article in which he draws upon his 15 years’ experience of the Bench at the Central Criminal Court, with particular reference to the increase of violent crime. “ There has been much discussion of late in the press on crime, its punishment, and the best means of dealing with it. Now that I am no longer on the bench I feel I can with propriety consider this question publicly from the point of view of a j'urige concerned with the imposition of punishment, and I have endeavoured to bring to bear my experience of 15 years as a judge at the Cential Criminal Court. “The most difficult as well as the most anxious part of a judge’s duty in a criminal case is, beyond all doubt, that of fairly adjusting 'the punishment to the particular offence, having regard to I lie conditions of crime at the lime. A very well-known and experienced judge said to me years ago: ‘ The trying of a case is as easy as shelling peas; the difficulty begins when the question of sentence arises.’ Though 1 cannot quite agree with the lirst. part of this proposition, 1 am entirely at one with its conclusion. Youth and Violence.

“As matters stand at present it is essential that sentences should be exemplary and effective enough to meet the new forms of crime which confront 'iis, and in which young people take an active part; and the judges can he relied upon to do what is right and iusi. The- state of crime in this country is most alarming in two respects. First, because its principal characteristic is violence, and, second!'-, on account of the extreme youthfulness of those who share m it. Mechanical transport has revolutionised crime. The quick ‘get-awaj ensures very largely the chance ol escape. The police are heavily handicapped. The crime itself in deeds of violence is of a particularly cowardly, callous, and bruta nature/ What can bo simpler? Steal a car which has been left unattended, drive it along a highway, even a busy one, mark down your victim, either in,in or woman (it does not mallei which), walking along the footway unconscious of danger, knock him or her on Hie bead with a hammer or some other deadly instrument, seize what can be found, leave the victim unconscious and bleeding by the roadside, and away in the car—to safety. “ in common with oilier .judges, l have of late years acted on the principle that generous leniency should if possible he extended io the etiminnl; but leniency in such eases o' violence as I have been describing would surely be false sentiment misapplied. The judges, indeed, may *»nd themselves compelled to deal with them in only one way, and tli.it is b> the infliction of severe and salutary

punishment, which in the absence of very special circumstances would pay no regard to previous good character. Such a course might be considered harsh; but the harshness, if any, Is excused by its undoubted neces-sity. “ Our Llf© Preserver.”

“ I thoroughly believe in the efficacy of the ‘ cat.’ or birch for young men, which might well be administered in such cases as blackmail, ‘hold-ups’ or ‘smash-and-grab’ or breaking and entering,’ even where no bodily violence is used. It must be remembered that many years ago there was a brutal form of crime known as ‘garrotting.’ Flogging was tried as a preventive, and garrotting ceased. Its cessation is a fact, however some maj dispute the efficacy -of Hogging. I was very much impressed by what I heard during a visit to one of the great prisons. I wanted to see a ‘ca-t-of-nine-tails.’ A warder fetched one, and as lie laid it -on the table he said with the utmost seriousness: ‘My lord, this is o'ur life-preserver; without it our -lives would not bo worth an hour's purchase.’ i“What is -the reason for this wave of violent crime? There are two outstanding features of this generation which have forced themselves on mv attention. The first is a sad ‘loosening of family ties,’ and the other is the prevalent weakening of the ‘will to work.’ To those two blots in our body .politic well-intentioned reformers should -direct their attention, for they are among the poisonous elements out of which crime is made.

“Ono word of the effect produced on young people by the cinema. The cinema is often of great value both as an amusement and education, but it has its grave dangers. There is a spirit of -adventure in young -people which, if directed into legitimate channels, is to he encouraged, hut if it is directed into channels which are featured by deeds of gangsters fighting against society, then -the spirit which otherwise would be -praiseworthy -becomes in the highest degree dangerous lo young people and consequently dangerous to the community at large.”