N.Z=Cuba lite?

Scheme to spot crims at birth
03 August 2006
By KIM THOMAS

A controversial plan to track would-be criminals from the womb is being considered by a Government taskforce charged with cutting the number of prison inmates.


The plan has yet to receive Cabinet backing but has drawn praise from the country's top Youth Court judge, Andrew Becroft.

New Zealand has one of the highest imprisonment rates in the Western world. By 2010, prison numbers are forecast to increase by 20 per cent.

Researcher Kaye McLaren last month presented a paper, called 35 Steps to Reducing Prison Populations, to a taskforce set up by Justice Minister Mark Burton to target the problem of crime and overflowing prisons. The paper has recommended the establishment of a database that records people likely to become serious criminals.

The database would detail the government help they received and any criminal charges.

McLaren, the author of Tough is Not Enough: Getting Smart About Youth Offending, said enough was known about the characteristics of people who went on to commit serious crime that they could be identified before they were born.

"It's clear there is a tiny group who are at risk of being serious criminal offenders," she said. "A lot of things that put people at risk of offending are characteristics of their family and parents."

However, Christchurch Health and Development Studies director David Fergusson cautioned that the development of a "high-risk register" could stigmatise people on it – many of whom would turn out to be responsible citizens – and make them reluctant to take part in government programmes.

He said a child's behaviour at 18 was difficult to predict before they were born as so many factors could influence the child throughout its early life.

Judge Becroft disputed the plan could be stigmatising, saying it was a positive way of helping families in need.

"It can easily be seen as Big Brother and stigmatising, but it is a holistic assessment to identify those with high-risk factors and provide them with positive intervention and assistance," he said.

Last month, Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro unveiled her plan for the development of a national database tracking every child from birth to 18 years.

McLaren proposes using a survey to identify high-risk expectant parents in hospital before their baby's birth.

Examples of the characteristics of parents most likely to bear criminals were the poor, Maori, the poorly educated, those with drug or alcohol addictions, those with criminal records and people who had been physically or sexually abused as children, she said.

Families identified as high-risk would be entered into a national computer register, allowing support services in each region to know who they were and give them priority for aid, such as parenting classes and programmes for children's behavioural problems, McLaren said.

"The path to prison starts at conception," she said. "The main goal in reducing prison populations is to reduce the numbers coming through from each previous stage.

"This involves identifying the groups at high risk of either having children who end up in prison or ending up in prison themselves and providing the most effective prevention or treatment possible at the earliest stage possible."

A spokeswoman for the Government's Effective Intervention taskforce, which is tackling the issue of overcrowded prisons, said McLaren's proposal was "under consideration".

A spokeswoman for Burton said the ministry was leading a multi-agency project looking at a range of interventions aimed at reducing the crime rate and the prison population.

The outcome of this work would be considered by the Cabinet and announced in coming weeks, she said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3752334a10,00.html

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