Recent Overseas Conferences
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587000300407 |
| Published date | 01 December 1970 |
| Date | 01 December 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Current Comment |
240 AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (Dec., 1970): 3, 4
CURRENT COMMENT (2)
Recent
Overseas
Conferences
THREE
international
conferences of considerable
interest
to
Australian
criminologists have recently been held overseas. As
the
number
of
Austra-
lian
representatives
attending
these
conferences was necessarily small, a
brief
account
of
their
proceedings is
presented
here
for
those who were
un-
able to
attend.
Chronologically,
the
first
of
the
three
was
the
International
Conference
and
Membership Meeting of
the
International
Prisoners'
Aid Association
held
at
Kyoto,
Japan,
August 14-16,
1970.
This organization,
which
has
con-
sultative
status
to
the
United Nations, conducted arelatively
short
and
informal
conference which some sixty overseas
representatives
of prisoners'
aid associations
and
an
approximately
equal
number
of local
residents
attended.
Papers
were
presented
by delegates
from
New Zealand,
Japan,
Canada
and
the
United
States,
and
ample
opportunity
was provided for
discussion of
these
papers
and
of
other
matters
of
general
interest.
The
I.P.A.A. conference could be seen as a
pipe-opener
for
the
much
larger
Fourth
United Nations Congress on
the
Prevention
of Crime
and
the
Treatment
of O-ffenders which was conducted
at
the
same
location over
the
period August 17-27. This conference was
attended
by some
1200
delegates
representing
86 countries,
the
Australian
delegation being led by
the
Hon.
J. Maddison, Minister of
Justice
for
New
South
Wales.
The
proceedings of
this
conference were largely devoted to debate on
four
central
themes
for
which
detailed
papers
had
been
prepared
and
previously circulated. These
dealt
with:
(a)
Social defence in
relation
to
development
planning;
(b)
Participation
of
the
public in
the
prevention
and
control of crime
and
delinquency; (c)
The
Standard
Minimum Rules
for
the
Treatment
of Prisoners in
the
light
of
recent
developments
in
the
correctional field;
and
(d) Organization of
research
for
policy development
in social defence. While
it
cannot
be denied
that
some contributions to
de-
bate
were
aimed
at
bolstering
national
prestige
and
others
reflected
deep-
rooted
international
disputes,
the
totality
of
the
discussion was
stimulating
and
constructive.
Informal
discussion between conference sessions
and
during
the
numer-
ous visits to
Japanese
correctional
institutions
was
greatly
appreciated
by
delegates.
Apart
from valuable
informal
contacts
of
this
sort, probably
the
most
significant
themes
that
emerged from
this
conference
related
to
the
organization
of criminological
research
and
also to public
participation
in
the
criminal
justice process.
With
regard
to research,
it
is probably
fair
to
say
that
the
Australian
delegates were
made
acutely
aware
of
our
shortcomings in
this
area,
both
at
government
and
academic levels,
when
Australia is compared
with
even relatively under-developed countries.
Similarly
with
regard
to public partioipation, Australia
has
much
to
learn
from overseas.
In
Japan,
for example, very large
numbers
of lay people
act
as volunteer probation officers or hold
part-time
positions in family
courts,
and
this
high
degree of
lay
involvement is possibly one of
the
reasons
why
Japan,
unlike
nearly
all
other
countries, is experiencing adecline
in
both
crime
and
delinquency rates.
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