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Mazengarb Report recommendations

When I wrote the original Wikipedia article on the Report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents, I didn't include the recommendations -- I just summarised the conclusions. I've now written a summary of the recommendations as well. Enjoy. As it is Wikipedia, anyone now within good reason has cause to edit them. Have fun...

Oh yeah, and here they are, as it were when I just finished the edit:

The recommendations (pages 66 to 68) covered legislative proposals, administrative suggestions and even 'parental example'. Highlights included (not a complete list; sorted by subject):

  • Crime:
    • Research: Longterm research into 'all aspects' of juvenile delinquency should begin.
    • Suggested legislative changes: That both girls and boys (implication being underage persons) should be chargeable with indecent conduct. Additionally, if children are summonsed, their parents should be similarly compelled to attend court, and that courts should have the power (if the parent's behaviour was said to have 'conduced' the child's offending) to order parents pay fines, court costs and give an assurance of the child's 'future good behaviour'. (Other sanctions suggested by the Committee included suspending social security benefits relating to the child.)
    • Police: That policewomens' duties and training should include dealing with 'girls involved in sexual offences'.
    • Social welfare: That child welfare should become an autonomous service under the Minister of Social Welfare.
  • Censorship:
    • Print publications: That tightening of censorship laws should occur to take into account 'undue emphasis on sex, crime or horror'. Additionally, that distributors of print publications be registered, with the spectre of cancellation of this licence to print or distribute should they distribute 'objectionable publications' under proposed legislation.
    • Films and other publications generally: That the Department of Internal Affairs' film censorship office finish gazetting some regulations they were authorised to do. Overall, that they and other censorship authorities should liaise regularly to maintain 'a uniform interpretation of public opinion and taste'.
    • Radio: That the New Zealand Broadcasting Service make sure the crime must never pay is 'more prominently featured' in their radio dramas, and a 'married woman' be appointing to their 'auditioning panel' 'immediately'.
  • Education:
    • Schools: That the Department of Education consider would be the best way to deal with 'problem pupils in post-primary schools'.
    • Community groups: That the Department of Education consider allowing 'responsible organisations' use of 'school grounds and buildings' in areas with 'a lack of facilities for recreation and entertainment'.
    • Housing: That the Department of Education consider requesting that some houses in 'housing settlements' be set aside for schoolteachers.
    • Parental example: That 'new laws' and 'stricter administration' might 'allay the well-founded fears of many parents', but that the risk was that parents might relax 'their own efforts'. 'Wise parenthood implies firm control and continual interest in the doings of sons and daughters', the Committee advised, but also said that parents' own conduct would be the 'best example for the [...] rising generation'.

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