SEX CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21409, 27 February 1935, Page 7

SEX CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN

TO THE BMTOB O* THE PKSSS. > Sir,—The letter of "Interested" on the subject of sex crimes against children is loose in statement and uninformed. Doubtless Miss Baughan will reply t.o it; but there is one issue raised by the writer that I should like to discuss briefly.

The .lash as a deterrent. I'ossibJy m some eases the Jasii does detei, though we have no evidence to this eileel, but much to the contrary. Obviously wheie practicable, the only satisfactory deterrent to all concerned is reformation, but let I hat pass. What are the facts about the use of Hogging" it has been abolished bv most civilised countries outside the* British Empire, is freely used in England, but scarcely at all in Ireland and Scotland, and then only in convict prisons. Those who have given most study to the subject have come to the conclusion that it is not only useless but evil. In England it is not used for offences against children, though it is thus employed in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada, but not elsewhere so far as 1 can find out. Now, it is clear that we cannot bring full critical statistics to justify the use of flogging in such cases. The subject is "far too complex, and the statistics too incomplete. We must, therefore, fall back on the opinions of informed observers. Mr Justice Hawkins (Baron Brampton), a man of very wide experience, tells us. "If you flog a man you make a very devil of him." A retired prison warden says, "I never knew one of its victims who was not a worse man in every sense afterwards than he was before." Many further opinions might be quoted, but here is at least one English judge who has expressed disapproval. Though flogging for the defilement of girls is" not allowed in England, the criminal law of 1912 imposed the lash for procuration and living on the earnings of a prostitute. Now there has been some decrease in procuration since the post-war years, yet the decrease in other forms of sexual crime, for which flogging is not allowed, has been much greater. However, "Interested" tells us, "In countries which have abolished it (i.e.. the lash) crime has gone ahead by leaps and bounds." Will he give some examples, and show the connexion between the abolition of the lash and the increase of crime?

The question of the psychological reaction." in floggcr and fl orifice T shall not enter upon now. — Yours, etc.. ROBT M. T.ATNG. February 2fi, 3935.