Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders: Report of the Committee of Inquiry Appointed by the Hon. Sir Maui Pomare, K.B.E., C.M.G., Minister of HealthNew Zealand. Committee of Inquiry into Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders
Science
Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders: Report of the Committee of Inquiry Appointed by the Hon. Sir Maui Pomare, K.B.E., C.M.G., Minister of Health
New Zealand. Committee of Inquiry into Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders
Mental health laws -- New Zealand; People with mental disabilities -- Care -- New Zealand; People with mental disabilities -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- New Zealand; Sex offenders -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- New Zealand; Sterilization (Birth control) -- New Zealand
By arrangement between the Departments concerned most of the cases of
children and juveniles are investigated by the Juvenile Probation
Officer of the Education Department prior to the hearing, but these
officers have no legal standing in any Court, and are not even empowered
to bring a destitute child before a Magistrate for committal to the care
of the State. This function must be carried out by a police constable.
The Children's Court, as it is constituted in other countries, is a
Court of equity, and its principal function is to consider all children
brought before it as cases requiring protection and care. It is the
business of the Court, by means of careful investigation in each case of
conduct, school history, family history, and mental condition, to
ascertain, if possible, the reason for misconduct, and either to
eliminate or modify the causes, or to remove the child from the
environment that has contributed to its present condition.
The presiding Magistrates are usually selected on account of their
experience with children and knowledge of child psychology. In some of
the Courts in America women are selected for these positions.
It is common knowledge that lack of mental balance, retardation, and
physical defect are responsible for much juvenile delinquency, and it is
therefore essential that if the children appearing before the Courts are
to be dealt with in a scientific manner there should be provision on the
lines recommended above.
SECTION 9.--POLICY FOR THE FUTURE.
It seems to the Committee that the Dominion has now come to the parting
of the ways in this matter, and unless the multiplication of the
feeble-minded is to be allowed to go on in an ever-increasing ratio,
with consequences dreadful to contemplate, the problem must be dealt
with on broader lines, and in a more comprehensive fashion.
In the first place, a comprehensive system of notification is essential
so that a register as complete as possible may be made of the cases to
be dealt with.
The English Commission for Inquiring into the Care and Control of the
Feeble-minded, whose report appeared as far back as 1908, laid down the
basic principles of a sound policy in dealing with this question. Their
first principle was that persons who cannot take a part in the struggle
for life owing to mental defect should be afforded by the State such
protection as may be suited to their needs. Their next principle was
that the mental condition of these persons, and neither their poverty
nor their crime, is the real ground of their claim for help from the
State. Their third principle was that if the mentally defective are to
be properly considered and protected as such it is necessary to
ascertain who they are and where they are.
This, of course, is the object of the system of registration to which we
have referred.
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