Doing time

In his letter, Peter Judge (Weekend Herald, October 22) notes that the median age of ram raiders, 15, is the same number of years since smacking was outlawed. Speculation as to the cause of youth crime, maybe.

In Sweden, however, a policy introduced some time ago has produced hard evidence. Sweden’s policy of paying parents a reasonable income to look after their children for the first three years of life has not only benefited parents and children but also had a startling long-term result that benefits society as a whole. Twenty years after the policy was introduced, there was such a significant drop in crime that Sweden started closing down prisons.

Of course, there are different social factors in New Zealand, but we often hear of families where both parents are having to work full-time to make ends meet, working day and night shifts that mean they barely see their children and are too exhausted to give them quality time.

The solution to preventing youth crime is not hitting children, but enabling their parents, especially those in straitened circumstances, to spend time with them.

Raewyn Maybury, Westmere.