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

f Comparison in Ab

ewhere from which reliable guidance may be obtained. Sexual immorality is, by its very nature, a clandestine vice. Any available figures can comprise only such things as detected offences against the la

er reasons it is not in the nature of the male to inform on the female. The common experience is that a charge of sexual impropriety comes from info

ivergence of opinion. If policemen, teachers, or social workers in the Hutt district had been asked in June of 1954 whether immorality had increased there, they would probably hav

the Hutt do not represent the full extent of known sexual immorality am

social welfare work (two of them girls who had become pregnant before their sixteenth birthdays). These were cases which had not been investigated by the poli

made the investigations in July that no useful purpos

vailable Statistics fo

hat at another. This section is to indicate the difficulties which arise in making comparisons (even when figures

l Crime A

show that the increase of sexual crime in the years 1920-1953 is not any greater than might reasonably have been expected having regard to the increase in population. In other words, the rate has remained constant. But the great increase in the number of indecent assaults on females (from 175 in 1952 to 311 in 1953) did call for special investigation. At the request of the Committee, these figures were broken down into the several districts in which the crimes had occurred and, as a result, it appeared that t

cs of Juveni

ittee by the Superintendent of th

ncrease in juvenile delinquen

the rate settled down to so

ection of these figures (al

of Offe

nts of

l, etc. Rate

le Pop

years 10

1,653

1,786

2,447

2,464

2,421

2,493

1,786

1,589

1,464

1,883

2,105

Department has undertaken much preventive work which may account for a return to the pre-

inquency in Maor

y a comparison as between Maori and non-Maori offenders in the 10-17-year-old gr

3 non-Maori offenders, or 72 per cent of those delinquents. But the Maori offenders came from 10 per cent of the juvenile population, whereas the non-Maoris came from

of sexual offenders among young Maoris than among other sections of the people. A considerable portion of offences may come

Under Control

n the number of children committed to the care of the State, or placed un

r E

h Under

uper

4 7

6 7

8 7

0 8

2 8

4 8

6 8

8 7

0 6

2 6

3 6

4 6

y welfare officers. The earlier reduction or the later increase in the number of children placed under care or supervision may have been affected by the var

Between New Zea

a half times as many adults convicted of sexual offences in this Dominion as there were in England and Wales. That statement results from a comparison of the figures in the two jurisdictions, but it may create a wrong impression unless it is remembered that in England only 47 per cent

this report-whether juvenile immorality has increased or not-any