World Authority on Criminal Behaviour Touring NZ

MEDIA RELEASE

Monday 18th September, 2006

Cradle to Jail Coalition

http://www.cradletojail.org.nz

Sensible Sentencing Trust

For the Sake of our Children Trust

Family First Lobby

World Authority on Criminal Behaviour Touring New Zealand With Advice for Policy Makers & Parents

British Prison Psychiatrist believes successive NZ Governments have created policies that are killing our children and their futures.

Dr Anthony Daniels (better known by his pen name, Theodore Dalrymple) believes he knows how policies have contributed to appalling crimes like the killing of Chris and Cru Kahui.

He has seen the growth of a dispirited, crime-ridden underclass in Britain and believes NZ is following a similar downward path, as a result of “policies that have given us squalor in the midst of extreme wealth”.

Dalrymple says of politicians, “they are simply limping after a problem they themselves have created”.

His views are formed from many hard years of experience as a prison and hospital psychiatrist dealing with criminals, the impoverished communities and dysfunctional families they came from. He also has extensive experience in Third World countries.

Dalrymple is considered a leading expert on the subject and is being brought to NZ to talk about it by the Cradle to Jail Coalition.

Three high profile trusts have pooled resources and created the coalition to fund Dalrymple’s trip - Sensible Sentencing Trust, For the Sake of our Children Trust and Family First Lobby.

“We’re bringing Theodore out to really elevate the debate, to highlight the folly of policies that have allowed crime against children and by children to escalate. We want to offer solutions that will help bring a stop to the Cradle to Jail crime cycle”, said CTJC Spokesman, Garth McVicar.

“Interest in his visit is already significant people from all backgrounds and areas of interest want to meet, talk and listen to him. By the end of his tour I expect there will be a lot of pressure on politicians to address this issue”.

The CTJ Coalition’s ideal outcome is for clear thinking that will lead to a change of policy direction, with a focus on prevention by addressing factors that keep the cycle turning such as: welfare dependency, child abuse and neglect, education failure, truancy, excuses for and tolerance of youth offending and lenient sentences.

“Dalrymple will challenge people to think and he’ll also suggest solutions. He’s a reformist with a desire to help rather than politicise and he rejects attempts to place his ideas on a left-right political continuum.”

A New Zealand admirer of Dalrymple is Waitakere City Mayor, Bob Harvey: “He’s an extraordinary thinker and writer.”

Dalrymple, who has visited New Zealand previously, has been closely following events here for several months. Following the killing of the Kahui babies, among scores of babies killed in the last decade, he said to Garth McVicar, “You’re in quite a mess down there, aren’t you?”

The ‘Cradle to Jail’ Campaign runs over 10 days from Monday the 9th of October. Theodore Dalrymple and the CTJ Coalition will tour the country attending a series of public and private functions, speaking with interested and influential people, and doing media interviews including talk back radio.

PUBLIC MEETINGS:

Napier Monday 16th October

Tauranga Tuesday 17th October

Auckland Wednesday 18th October

Garth McVicar is encouraging “anyone who has an interest in our children’s future to come along to a public meeting or catch an interview with Dalrymple while he’s here… he has some practical solutions to prevent further escalation in the hideous crime we’re seeing where children are murdered and murdering”.

“We are asking politicians be brave, show leadership, have a vision, just do something rather than commission another report that recommends calling for a further report”.

Theodore Dalrymple puts it succinctly:

"To deal with the problems of modern society, hard thought, confrontation with an often unpleasant reality, and moral courage are needed, for which a vague and self-congratulatory broadmindedness is no substitute."

Background:

Theodore Dalrymple writes regular columns for many publications including US-based ‘City Journal’ and Britain’s ‘Spectator’.

More information including the titles of the 14 books he’s written, is available on the Cradle to Jail Website - http://www.cradletojail.org.nz

World Authority on Criminal Behaviour Touring NZ

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