POLICE COURTS AND HUSBANDS AND WIVES
By a BARRISTER-AT-LAW
IN his book, The Young Delinquent, Professor Cyril Burt, the eminent psychologist, stated that "defec- tive family relationships" were found to be existing in 58 per cent. of the cases that he studied. "In one respect or another," he wrote, "among what is by far the majority of my delinquent cases the child's domestic circumstances are demonstrably inimical." As Parlia- ment has, in the Children and Young Persons Act of 1933, turned its attention to our methods for dealing with juvenile delinquents, it is fitting that an attempt is now to be made to induce Parliament to consider the problem bow best to deal with disputes between husband and wife. The two problems are very closely linked. Where divorces and separations involve children, every case has in it the possibility that " defective family relationships" may result in serious injury to the thildren.
Even where divorce or separation comes about without obvious harm to children, the economic factor is usually of grave importance. Probably only a small proportion of the husbands and fathers who are parties to divorce or separation cases are economically in a position to support two homes, and the majority of them will prob- ably not live indefinitely as bachelors. That 4,342 married men were sent to prison in the last year for which statistics have been published because they did not pay court orders for the maintenance of wife or family is some indication of the gravity of this aspect of the matter. This particular feature is now under enquiry by a Home Office Departmental Committee whose report is expected shortly. But whatever improvements in our judicial machinery for enforcing payment of court orders this Committee may suggest, it is obvious that the most valuable reform of all would be to reduce the number of cases where orders.for maintenance are necessary.
Every year about 24,100 applications are made to our Police Courts for separation or maintenance orders and over 17,000 are granted. Seeing that, despite the enormous increase in the number of divorce cases since the War, the annual output of decrees by the Divorce Court is just under 4,000, it is clear that the problem of Police Court separations is a pressing one. A belief that Police Court methods of handling this class of case are archaic, and that With a better technique a consider- able proportion of separation and maintenance orders could be avoided, lies behind the introduction of the Summary Jurisdiction (Domestic Procedure) Bill, which was given a first reading in the House of Lords a fort- night ago. The Bill was introduced by the Earl of Listowel, a young peer of Labour sympathies whose entry upon a career of political and social service has already shown great promise.
At present a dispute between husband and wife is subjected to exactly the same technique as is a criminal charge or a Motoring prosecution. The function of the court is solely to decide according to the laws of evidence such questions as "Has the defendant deserted his wife ? " or "Has he been guilty of wilfully neglecting to maintain his children ? " Most of the larger courts have court missionaries who do nobly what they can behind the scenes to investigate the dispute with a view to reconciliation, but plenty of Police Courts have no such assistance and in any case our law does not impose on the court any duty to investigate or pacify. The proceedings arc open to the public, with the result that, in Lord Buckmaster's words, "a woman has to give her evidence before a court that is crowded with vulgar, idle sightseers who have not gathered for the purpose of seeing justice administered, but for the purpose of hearing unclean matters from the lips of a woman." Although severe restrictions have since 1926 been imposed on the reporting of divorce cases in the Press, no such restrictions ensure reasonable privacy in separ- ation cases. Though a few enlightened courts here and there (e.g., Liverpool, Bury; Bromley, Sm.), separate domestic cases from criminal and other prosecutions no such separation is general. Magistrates turn from crimes to motoring offences and vid Building Act, Shops Act, &c., cases to domestic disputes. All arc usually jumbled up together and by law the same method of hearing has to be adopted. The parties must take their turn in the witness box and each is invited to cross-examine the other. Is it surprising if the one thing that the court never hears is the real truth The new Bill starts with an assumption that a dispute between husband and wife is different from any other matter that comes before a Police Court. It denies that such a dispute is solely a matter of law or that lawyers alone are competent to handle it. It provides that domestic disputes of all kinds shall be heard according to a new "domestic procedure." Many of its proposals are copied from the Children Act ; the number of justices sitting at any one time is limited, and where there are stipendiary magistrates they arc to have lay assistance, women arc to form part of the court, the general public is not to be admitted. From the Divorce Court is copied the restriction on the right to report proceedings in the Press. In addition the law of evidence is substantially modified, so that parties need not be rendered tongue-tied by oaths and witness-boxes. Each party is to have ample opportunity for stating his or her case, but no direct Cross-examination is to be allowed. The whole atmosphere is to be changed from one of litigation to one of investigation and reconciliation, and on the court is laid the duty to try "to bring about the reconciliation of the Parties."
Another invaluable feature of the Bill is a new "Con- ciliation Summons," without any powers of compulsion behind it, for use where there are "circumstances which threaten to give rise to an application for a separation or maintenance order or to a petition for divorce or cir- cumstances which the court thinks may be detrimental to the happiness of the parties or to the interest of any children of the parties." At present courts can do nothing unless there is a primd fade case of desertion, cruelty or neglect to maintain. If the Bill passes, husbands and wives will be able to bring all their more serious troubles to the court for advice, and thus it is believed many domestic sores will be prevented from festering.
, It is greatly to be hoped that the House of Lords will give a Second Reading to Lord Listowel's Bill, for present conditions, especially where stipendiary magis- trates reign alone, arc such as to place a premium on separations. Then in Committee a careful investiga- tion of the whole problem may be hoped for, in which lawyers should not be allowed to dominate.
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