6. Sentencing of children, when proba-
tion fails, to reform schools, not gaols or
_ penitentiaries.

The seventh, and perhaps one of the most
important points, is the supervision of pro-
bation work by a voluntary committee of
citizens, who would also offer advice to the
court. Where there is a Children’s Aid
Society the committee of such society would
be the Juvenile Court committee.

Every effort must be made towards saving
a child, not punishing him. Delinquency
problems should be handled by compassion,
not recession.

Under proper supervision, probation has
proved highly successful in many trials.
Firstly, one must win the confidence and
respect of the child offender. That is where
the personal touch enters, and the Proba-
tion Officer must supply it.

In unorganized portions of the province
and smaller towns there is no provision made
to carry out the objects of the Act, such as
the cities of Vancouver and Victoria have,
and it falls to the lot of the presiding Court
Judge and Police Officer to do the best they
can under the circumstances. In such case
the Police Officer assumes the role of Pro-
bation Officer.

The duties of the Provincial Constable
are three-fold; before trial, at trial, and after
trial. When a child is first arrested or in-
formed against, the Police Officer must see
the child, win his confidence, hear his story.
The delinquent’s home is visited, his school
or employment record checked, his habits
and history investigated. Not with a view
to prosecution. That is only a last resort.
The question is, Why did the child go

wrong?

WELFARE OF DELINQUENT CONSIDERED
FIRST

All information is then placed at the
disposal of a Magistrate, in order that he
may know what action to take in the best
interests of the child. In court the Officer
does not act as a prosecutor. He presents
his findings impartially to the Judge. In
most cases the result is the release of the
young culprit in charge of the Officer.

Usually, and especially in the smaller
places, the child is made to report peri

odically to the Officer. In this way the
Police may win the child’s respect and offer
advice that will help tremendously.

A “child”, or one coming under the De-
linquent class, is, according to the Act,
any girl or boy apparently or actually under
the age of sixteen. A proviso in the section
states that in any province which the Gover-
nor-in-Council by proclamation has directed,
a “child” means any boy or girl under the
age of eighteen. The Dominion Proclama-
tion raising the age in British Columbia from
16 to 18 appeared in the Canade Gazette in
February, 1922.

A delinquent does not commit a crime.
He may break the law, but he is not a
criminal. Parliament made the resolution,
terming them “delinquents”, to save them
at the start of their mature careers from the
brand of “criminal.”

So the young boy has constituted an
offence known as delinquency. He is dealt
with, not as an offender, but as one in a
condition of delinquency, therefore requir-
ing help and guidance, and proper super-
vision.

In the case of a child being placed in an
Industrial Home, he must be 12 years or
over, unless attempts have been made to

reform such child in his own, or a foster
home. That is, no child under 12 may be
placed in an institution for a first “offence.”

Children placed in foster homes must be
put with people of their own faith, and
where a Children’s Aid Society is denom-
inational, children of a different denomina-
tion cannot be committed to it.

These are a few of the facts which con-
front law officers throughout British Colum-
bia. The police are doing their duty splen-
didly in their dealings with juvenile delin-
quents. But co-operation of the people is
always needed. The children aren’t bad.
With a chance from the public, they can
become good citizens.

Give them that chance.

FORCE GREAT TRAVELLERS

In 1937 the individual members of the
Provincial Police travelled 2,600,000 miles
to uphold the law. Automobiles and motor-
cycles accounted for 1,757,000 of this but
more than a quarter million miles was cov-
ered on foot and another 19,100 on horse-
back. They travelled 148,000 miles by
steamship, 317,000 miles by rail, 68,000 in
launches and 15,000 flying over mountain
tops by plane.

Greetings and Best Wishes

to the

Ba Ca PROVINCIAES POLICE

on their

80th Anniversary

Compliments of

Lemon Gonnason Co. Ltd.

LUMBER MANUFACTURERS

Coast Hardware

Victoria, B.C.

Victoria, B.C.

OCTOBER, 1938

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