Report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents

tional Pr

reports of proceedings in the Magistrate's Court at Lower Hutt against youths char

fficer was report

orgies perpetrated in several private homes during the absence of parents, and in several secon

o stat

he children came fr

and a Stipendiary Magistrate that juvenile delinquency (meaning delinquency in general and not only sex

homes where they a

public comment throughout the Dominion. The anxiety of parents

minion for a long time has caused so much public dismay and so much private

urchase newspapers on the way to and from school. On the other hand the focusing of attention on the existence of the peril to school children caused many parents, temporarily at any rate, to take a greater interest in the training and care of

about 16 years had been arrested in Christchurch on a charge of murdering the mother of one of them. It soon became widel

exual crime in New Zealand was, per head of population, half as much again as the sexual crime in England and Wales.

Reports fr

ewspapers, and by many newspapers in Australia and Great Britain, the Committee points out th

ed and as well behaved as those in other districts, whether in New Zealand or elsewhere. It just happened that, throu

mmittee can merely quote from some of the reports received in New Ze

En

emales-132 in 1953, compared with 75 in 1952-and for offences against girls under 16 years of age. In his annual report the Chief Constable state

w Sout

ER WILD TEEN

lt in which a bodgie "high priest" and a number of pret

articipate in lewd rituals, swear a profane oath on "

15-year-old daughter of a respected Erskineville family started the police investigation which uncovered the sex cult. Both t

of indecency, the girl swore the "widgies' oath" o

uth Au

SEIZE TEENAGER

arties. The Port Adelaide Police Chief Inspector, G.E. Mensfort, said that when the cases came to Court he suspected revelations similar to those in the Hutt Valley, which recently sh

Lo

LS IN BA

is a disturbing increase in the number of 17-and 18-year-old girls who are coming under the notice

rld-wide

sexual crime in various c

ncluded in published figures, no special mention has been found by this Committee of the aspect of sexual delinquency now being discussed in New Zealand. What is entirely new in New Zealand (and probably in other place

and their effects on young people, but this is the first time that any Government has set up a Committee

red in the local newspapers the following tel

O VICE WAVE

row a searching probe into Britain's homosexuals and prostitute

llowed public alarm at the vice wave in Britain, hig

es, and offences against the criminal law in connection with prostitution and solicitation for immoral purposes. According to the police, prostitutes in London alone have soared to a record of

sullied by these reports, the Committee hopes that any damage may be repaired by setting out the facts in their true perspective a