Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am referring to what you said earlier, Professor Martin, that the crime rates, relative to the 1960s, are much higher today. I don't have any statistics to hand. You also talked about the fact that there was greater tolerance for homosexuals or immigrants. So there is less racism.
Professor, I would say that it is mainly as a result of prevention and education that is being done in society. It's not necessarily because we punish that the situation is improving. I think a lot of work has been done on education and prevention.
So if you apply this point of view to the question of crime committed by young persons—I'm not talking about those committed by adults who do it for profit—it seems to me that the policy of punishment without rehabilitation can never work. It's not by increasing their term of imprisonment or by sending them to prison for life that we'll solve the crime problem. You have to attach that to a very coherent prevention and rehabilitation program. Often sending people to prison has the effect of making them more hardened criminals. Prisons are schools for crime. That doesn't solve the basic problem.
I'd like to know your opinion on that subject.