Young Offenders (Press, 8 August 1987)
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Summary: Young Offenders (Press, 8 August 1987)
In a letter to the editor published on 8 August 1987, Dugald McDonald and 17 other staff and students from the Department of Social Work at the University of Canterbury expressed their disagreement with comments made by Mr D. Seller, a retired official from the Department of Social Welfare. Seller had suggested that children under the age of 14 should be processed through the criminal court system. The authors of the letter referred to the experiences of the late John A. Lee, who, as a child, faced severe consequences for rejecting unwanted advances from a court social worker. Lee was subsequently labelled a "young thug" and sentenced to an indefinite stay at Burnham Reformatory. The letter's signatories argued that if compassion in authority is viewed negatively, then they would identify with the so-called "bleeding heart brigade," which they believe uses its authority with empathy.
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