LAW, ORDER AND RECORDS
151
not having an immediate effect on the retail price of drugs, has made drug trafficking a little more difficult and less profitable.
The increase in crime committed by juveniles is another disturbing feature. Not only is there an increase in the number of juveniles prosecuted but the percentage in relation to prosecutions of all age groups has also risen. Their main offences are assaults, demanding with menaces, and minor larcenies. In many cases small gangs have picked as their victims children younger than themselves. The Juvenile Liaison Sections formed in 1963 have completed a certain amount of useful research into juvenile crime and the structure of the gangs to which many of these offenders belong. Facts about the home conditions, family finances, and educational standard of arrested juveniles shows that the majority come from unsatisfactory homes. More than 60 per cent are from homes where the total monthly income is less than $300. A similar per- centage were not at school or were unemployed. Only two per cent come from homes where the income was over $1,000 a month. Very few girls have been arrested.
A matter of concern is that these young offenders should not graduate to more serious crime and fall under the influence of triad societies. Preventive measures include the discretionary power to place first offenders under the age of 14 under the supervision of the Juvenile Liaison Section. Homes are visited and parents are encouraged to take responsibility for their children.
In November Government formed an inter-departmental fact- finding committee to examine statistics on crimes of violence committed by juveniles and young people. This committee is to advise whether present legislation enables the courts to deal ade- quately with such crimes.
Triad activity, already mentioned as a potential influence upon young criminals, remains an ever present threat to the community as a whole. The sustained efforts of the police, directed through the specialized techniques of the Triad Society Bureau, have reduced the ability of the triads to organize concerted defiance of the law. But triad societies remain, even if they have abandoned much of their organization and ritual, and flourish upon every form of vice. Not the least of their powers is the hold they retain upon the public mind and there can be no relaxation of the measures to eradicate them.