& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Brutal Murders Increase Calls for Death Penalty

Despite concern at the growth of viplence. New Zealand is probably a lot safer than most Western countries. And despite public revulsion at receht murders, the chances of the death penalty being brought back are very remote

Derek Round writes from Wellington
A spate of brutal mur ders, sonic involving rape, has led to demands to "bring back the noose" as New Zealanders worry about their increasingly violent society.
Michael Laws, a member of the ruling National Party, says 80 per cent of his electorate want hanging reintroduced for murder. New Zealand abolished the death penalty in 1961.
The last person to go to the gallows here was a 68-year-old farmer convicted of poisoning his wife with arsenic. But doubts remain over his guilt and the hanging is reported to have been botched.
Mr Laws says some of his fellow members of Parliament also favour the death penalty. But Prime Minister Jim Bolger and Justice Minister Douglas Graham say the government will not return to capital pun-ishmenL
Life imprisonment remains the mandatory penalty for murder, with murderers serving about nine years in gaol before they are released.
In the days when hanging was the penalty murders were comparatively rare in New Zealand. But murder rates have quadrupled in the three decades since the death penalty was abolished.
By mid-Aprll there had been 22 murders so far this year In a population of 3.4 mil lion. Concerned New Zealanders arc asking what has happened to a society where the number of killings rose from 16 in 1971 to 50 in 1981 and 79 last year.
Prime Minister Bolger says criminal violence is a bigger problem than the economy.
Some callers on radio talk-back shows arc demanding compulsory castration of sex criminals. An organisation called Mothers Against Sex Crimes is calling for the death penalty "because nothing else is working".
A 1987 government-appointed committee of inquiry into violence has recommended automatic imprisonment for violent offending; removing as a defence the mitigating effects of alcohol; no parole for at least 10 years lor life sentences; reducing television violence: and closing bars between 2 pm and 4 pm.
The rccpmrpcndations have-not been implemented although sentences for crimes such as rape have been increased.
Peter Williams, a leading criminal lawyer who heads the Howard League for Penal Reform, says the solution is Io work on root causes in the community. He is critical of the lack of counselling and psychiatric services for the mentally ill.
People should be encouraged to report suspicious "loner type" behaviour to the police or social welfare officers so potentially dangerous people can get counselling. Mr
Williams says.
Another leading criminal lawyer. Mike Bungay, who has defended many murderers, says : "If you want to have a non-violent society you've got to have a caring society, and we're not the sort of caring society we used to be."
The current spate of violence hits variously been put down to unemployment, drugs, pornography, television violence, alcohol and a breakdown in social values.
Prime Minister Bolger says there is no connection between rising unemployment — now around 10 per cent — and violence. although Police Min Isler John Banks secs a link.
Mental health Foundation Director Dr Barbara Dislcy believes unemployment and massive social change in the last few years Including welfare state restructuring are factors tn the increase in violent crime.
While calls for the reintro duction of the death penalty satisfy the public's desire for revenge when a murder occurs, they do nothing to address underlying causes of violent offences. Dr Dislcy says.
But despite concern at the . growth of violence and the rising number of homicides. Dr John Pratt, senior lecturer in criminology at Wellington's Victoria University, argues that New Zealand is probably a lol
safer and more secure than most other Western countries.
An international crime sur vey in 1988 showed there were 8,4 murders and attempted murders per 100,000 people in the United States and 5.5 per 100.000 in Canada. In New Zealand the figure was 3.1 murders and attempted murders per 100.000 people.
In contrast to this, there were 5.1 murders and al tempted murders per lOO.OXJ New Zealanders in 1913.
The long-term trends in i his country and elsewhere suggest a significant decline in violence and the public's tolerance of it," Dr Pratt says.
New Zealand first had the death penalty in 1840 under the British colonial law and 44 people have been hanged since then, all but one (a young Maori warrior executed for treason in 1869) for murder. Only one of those hanged was a woman, a baby murderer.
The country's first l.abour Government, elected in 1935, immediately began commuting all death sentences to prison terms and abolished hanging in 1941.
The conservative National Party reintroduced the death penalty in 1950 and eight people were hanged in what was grimly called the "Swinging 50s."
Capital punishment was igain suspended in 1957 and 'inally abolished in 1961 in a iramatic free vote of MPs which saw 10 members of the Malional Government, includ-ng the liberal attorncy-gen-.•ral, voting with the Labour ipposition.
The possibility of an inno-•ent person being hanged, as las happened iq Britain, has seen used as a strong argu-
ment by opponents of the death penally.
Party MP, is now planning to introduce a private member's bill in Parliament seeking a national referendum on the issue at (he same time as next year's general election.
This would provide time for public debate, "a reflection on the ghastly crimes of recent months" and an opportunity for all sides to make their views known." he says.
But. despite public revulsion at recent murders, the chances of the death penalty being brought back arc very remote — Depthnews Asia