Basic HTML Version
derers, the same stories are heard
over and over again: stories of pa–
rental neglect, or overindulgence;
stories of harsh and severe dis–
ci pline, or of none at all; stories of a
weak or absent father figure, or of a
domineering mother; stories of in–
cest and other horrible sexual per–
version within the home; stories of
parental hypocrisy and double stan–
dards; stories of an absence of genu–
ine !ove . und e rs tanding and
atfection in the fami ly; stories of a
lack of spiritual and moral training;
stories of mothers leaving the home
for a job of thei r own, abandoning
children to si tters, day-care cen ters,
or the streets; stories of broken
homes and divorce; stories of par–
ents "doing their own thing" and
letting children fend for themselves.
Parents, in short, have abdicated
th ei r responsibility of mold ing right
character and instilling moral va lues
into their children. In far too many
cases, there is little or no teaching of
respect for authority and the rights
of others. of honesty, deccncy, re–
liabi lity and cooperation. And in far
too many cases, there is no st rong
parental example to reinforce such
teaching when it is present.
And, of course. today's morally
emasculated schools do little to fill
the gaps left by the parents. Neither
do the world's churches, which have
fail ed to powerfully a nd etfectually
set forth concrete moral and spiri–
tual guidelines for everyday life.
The result?
Unprincipled , emoti ona lly un–
stable, misguided and confused ch il–
dren - fut ure crimi na ls in the
making. And even if sorne do not
turn to crime, th cy neverthcless re–
ma in psychologically scarred for
life.
"Train up a chi ld in the way he
should go," counseled Solomon in
Proverbs 22:6, "and when he is old,
he will not depart from it.'' Yet how
many are following this sage advice
today?
An American newsmagazine re–
cently reported the following in this
regard: "Japan is an almos! crime–
clean nation by Western stan–
dards.... Japan's record for law
and order is the envy of police in the
industrialized West. Japan is safe
and getting safer."
Why?
14
"Make a chain: for the land
is full of bloody crimes, and
the city is full of
violence.
.. .
All the land is
full of murder and injustice."
Ezekiel 7:23; 9:9
Experts. the repon explains, give
most of the credit to Japan's social
cohesion, the close-knit Japanese
family, and respect for authority
and trad ition instilled in children by
the parents. ·
The breakdown of the home and
neglect of parental responsibilities is
without doubt a major
roo/
cause of
today's worldwide crime epidemic.
Crime prevention starts in the home.
Yet all too many "experts" continue
lo pursue solutions based on secon–
dary or tertiary'causes of crime. Un–
ti! they begin to emphasize the need
for a revita lization of the family,
crime wi ll continue to surge upward.
Strong Deterrent Needed
To deal wi th those who have not
had insti lled wi thin them a founda–
tion of respcct for law and who have
chosen a li fe of crimc, another cle–
ment is rcquired if crime is to be
stopped.
Fonner U. S. Attorney General
Edward
H.
Levi has asserted: "Wc
must understand that a n etfective
criminal justice system has to em–
phasize deterrence. There are many
causes of crime, but a rnong them is
the failure of our system to move
quickly and ctfectively to detect and
punish otfcnders."
The second major cause ofcrimc is
the lack of a firm punitive deterrent
against crime in the form of stiff
penalties for those who commi t it.
penalt ies which fit the crime. In many
of the Western industrialized na–
tions, criminals are often arrested one
day and back on the street the next.
free to commit new crimes. Many
who are arrested are never brought to
tria!.
or
those tried, relat ively few go
to prison. Ofthose imprisoned, many
are out long before their full en–
lences have been served.
The Unitcd States, aga in, is th e
trend-setter in this regard. where
criminologists estímate that of all
serious crimes. only 12 percent lead
to a rrests, on ly six percent to con–
victions. and only one percent to
prison.
That is not the sort of treatment
which is going to deter criminals
from committing crime. In fact.
criminals today are convinced they
can literally get away with murder;
that crime pays ! They can commit
th e most violent and vicious crimes
and find themsclves back on the
streets a short time la ter.
O
ver
half
of the persons arrested
on felony charges in the Un ited
States have prior criminal rec–
ords- some having been arrestcd ten
times or more previously. A man
commits armed robbery of a liquor
store and is released on bailto awai t
tria!. A few days later he is a rrested
again, this time for burglary. Again
he is released on bond. When he
fail s lo appear in court,
a
wa rrant is
issued for his arrest. Arrested . he
spends a few days in jail. The bur–
glary charge is dropped on
a
"tech–
nical ity." Found gui lty of a rmed
robbery. he is placed on five years'
probation. While out on probation.
he is arrested for rape while armed
with a knife.
" Revolving-door just ice" it 's
being called. Criminals move in a nd
ou t of the criminal justice system as
though it had a revolving door.
When will it be realized that
laws
do 1101 de1er crilne?
lt's thc swift,
certain. consisten! and impartia l
en–
Jorcement
of those laws that is the
deterrent! "Because scntence
against an evil work is not cxecuted
speedi ly." th e Bibl e observes,
"therefore the hcart of the sons of
men is fu lly set in them to do evil"
(Eccl. 8: 11 ).
Prisons are rarely able lo rehabili–
ta te olfenders. and often actually
become "graduate schoo ls" of
crime. Rooting out ingrained char–
acter defects formed over many
yea rs is a nearly impossible task.
Prisons are not a solution to crime.
but prison term that are mean–
ingful and fit the crime
can
serve as
punishment and as a means of iso–
lating criminals for the safety of the
rest of society. Since the majority of
serious crime is committed by re–
pea ters. incarceration for longer
stretches will
automatically
rcsult in
a marked reduction in crime. And if
criminals know that a "ten-ycar sen-
The
PLAIN TRUTH April 1977