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Personal Submission from Peter Jenkins on Young Offenders Bill

Submission to the Law and Order Select Committee on the Young Offenders (Serious Crimes) Bill

Introduction

1.1     I make this personal submission to the Young Offenders (Serious Crimes) Bill

2.3     The address for correspondence in relation to this submission is as follows:

Peter Jenkins
PO Box 7651
Wellesly Street
Auckland

Mobile/txt : 0274 338562
Email : peja@xtra.co.nz

1.4 I fully support the first provision which aims to amend section 272 of the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 in order to widen the range of offences which may be dealt with by the adult legal system from just murder and manslaughter as is the case currently. This will enable those over the age of 10 to be made aware of the serious consequences of such offending

1.5 I fully support the second provision which aims to amend section 22 of the Crimes Act 1961 so that both the number and severity of offences for which a limitation on criminal responsibility applies is reduced for offenders aged 10 to 14. This will result in those who commit “adult” offences being held to adult standards of responsibility.

1.6 I especially fully support the third provision aiming to amend section 18 of the Sentencing Act 2002 in order that limits to the imposition of sentences on offenders under 17 at the time an offence is committed are removed for the serious offences previously referred to in 1.1. As before, this will result in adult standards of responsibility being applied when “adult” offences are committed.

1.7 I would like to expand on my reasons for my support of this Bill;
It will have three desirable effects;

• a) It will send a clear message to both young adults and their parents that society expects certain minimal standards of behaviour
• b) It will hopefully result in those offenders that this Bill is designed to cover being sentenced for sufficiently long periods that they will be out of circulation through their teens, twenties and even thirties (if we are especially lucky!), the period during which they will otherwise pose their peak danger to the law-abiding public.
• c) For those that can be rehabilitated, it will mean that they will come under the aegis of adult rehabilitation service providers earlier rather than later, when there is a greater chance that the rehabilitation might be successful.

1.8 I would like to anticipate and address with one major logical objection that may be made to this Bill. That is the fact that we do have differing age points of responsibility for various activities, and the age points set by this Bill are younger than any of these. Examples include the age of sexual consent currently set at 16, the age at which one may obtain a driving licence, also currently set at 16, and the drinking and voting age both currently set at 18.

On the surface, this does indeed appear to be a reasonable objection. However it needs to be considered that the offenders and the offences they commit that this Bill sets out to address are exceptions. They are not representative of the majority of children or young adults, complaints about the “behaviour of youth today” notwithstanding!

The other ages of responsibility such as the age of sexual consent, the drinking age etc etc however are intended to cover and protect all youth. And in line with sensible harm reduction and risk minimisation practices, they are set conservatively, in order to protect the interests of the less mature and less worldly wise youth, and to protect the rest of us from what might otherwise come to pass. These age points are designed to protect all youth – after all the vast majority of us have sex, and most of us also intend to drive, vote, and drink, although not at the same time of course.

There are probably some young people who could safely be entrusted with the responsibility of driving, voting, or alcohol at a younger age. However they may not be a majority, and the younger they are the more exceptional they would be. Since the ages of responsibility are not set to cover exceptions, but to protect the majority, these ages are set conservatively as previously mentioned

Most youth however do not set out to commit serious offences, as I stated earlier. This Bill is intended to assist us in dealing with the most criminally precocious, the most dangerous and psychopathic young criminals, a tiny and exceptional minority. That is why the provisions of this Bill are in fact logically consistent with the age of consent, drinking age etc – this Bill deals with exceptions.

2)

2.1 I look forward to expanding on my support of this Bill in my verbal submission before the select committee.

2.2 In summary, I wholeheartedly support this Bill in its entirety and it’s intent