Education ultimate crime-fighter, says judge

Andrew Becroft

Principal Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft says one of the best ways to cut crime may be to help youngsters overcome reading disabilities.

He says a recent study of young offenders in Britain found that 56 per cent have dyslexia, with their brains wired so that they cannot identify words or letters, or miss out parts of words, even though they may be highly intelligent.

This is 10 times the 5 per cent to 7 per cent rate of dyslexia in the general population.

Judge Becroft challenged educators attending the Boys in Schools conference at Albany yesterday to put more resources into learning disabilities rather than expelling boys with learning problems.

"Education is our ultimate crime-fighting tool," he said.

"Absence from school is closely associated with offending behaviour.

"It is absolutely critical that young men are kept at school for as long as possible.

"A boy faithfully attending school is much less likely to get involved in crime, even if not achieving academically.

"Thus alternatives to stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions are necessary, as are decisive responses to truancy.

"It is acknowledged that considerable resources are required to deal with these students and that some schools may prefer to axe difficult students to maintain a good reputation.

"Nonetheless, we view it as imperative that adequate resources are provided to assist schools in dealing with these 'problem' students, and that any amount spent on prevention in schools will be cheaper than the huge cost, both financial and emotional, of crime committed by some of these students as they mature."

His comments came a day after Auckland University researchers reported that dyslexics use a different part of their brain for reading than other people - the right side of the brain, which is associated with spatial and creative thinking rather than the sequential left-brain thinking used by most people to read.

"There is good evidence from Britain that there is almost a pathway to offending which begins with learning difficulties, leads to low self-esteem and poor behaviour, followed by exclusion from school, followed by small criminal offending, followed by larger offending," Judge Becroft said.

"If the issue that starts all of that is a learning disability, there is every reason to say we could be throwing a lot of resources and effort into that."

He quoted expert suggestions that schools should provide more organised and competitive lunchtime sport, separate classes for boys in physical education and English, more kinaesthetic and technological learning (such as computer technology), link problem students with a buddy or prefect and involve parents earlier in discipline.

He called for "father-son activities or afternoons" at schools, fathering and parenting seminars and more quality male teachers to mentor boys with no father figures in their lives.

He said alternative education programmes, which had 3094 students in 2002, should be accredited and standardised, and problem students should not be left to the "dumping ground" of the Correspondence School.

Drugs were the most common reason for student suspensions in 2003, but Judge Becroft urged schools to let drug users stay in school and undergo drug programmes.

He cited a Wanganui initiative called "High on Life" which refers students with drug or alcohol problems to a counsellor and has halved drug-related suspensions. "Keep retaining drug abusers, but keep campaigning for better treatment services. Speak out!" he said.

A spokeswoman for the Child, Youth and Family Service said the service was talking with Massey University about a study of learning disabilities in New Zealand youth residences to start from July 1.