CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR . ]
SIR,—The question of corporal punishment will shortly be examined by a Departmental Committee appointed by the Home Secretary. Valuable evidence will doubtless be sub- mitted by magistrates, police and officials of high standing. The Howard League for Penal Reform will, of course, offer evidence, and that evidence, while not ignoring the humani- tarian case and the psychological problems involved will, in the main, be factual, dealing with the practical results of corporal punishment in the prevention of crime.
It is not possible for most private citizens to put their views before Departmental Committees, and one function of the Howard League is to provide a channel for the transmission of such valuable information as may be in the possession of numbers of ordinary citizens. We should like our evidence to be as representative as possible, and we should therefore welcome any information from those who possess it to supplement what we shall obtain from our own researches and from our own membership, and we shall be most grateful if you, by publishing this letter, would give us an opportunity of appealing to your readers for their co-operation.
We shall be glad to receive information in as brief a form as possible from those who have either first or second-hand knowledge of facts :
(1) The conditions under which, and the methods by which, b:rthings ordered by the juvenile court have been carried out, giving the date, place, number of police or other persons present ; whether the child was stripped and how he was held during the punishment, and whether any medical examination ras given before, during or after the punishment.
(2) What period of time elapsed between the making of the urder for whipping and the actual infliction of the punishment.
(3) The effects upon the offender, physical or psychological, of corporal punishment inflicted following an order of the juvenile court or a sentence passed by an adult court. If, in any case, it is possible to quote medical testimony under this heading, the information will be of additional value.
(4) The after-history of any offenders who were either birched by order of the court as children, or birched or flogged under sentence of Courts of Assize or Quarter Sessions, with Particular reference to the question whether or not they repeated the offence for which they were whipped, or were subsequently convicted of another offence, floggable or non-floggable.
We should be very grateful if anyone who has any informa- tion to send would send it to us in writing, addressed to the Hon. Sec., Howard League for Penal Reform, Parliament Mansions, Victoria Street, London, S.W. 1.
We shall, of course, treat any information so received in strict confidence, and use only the facts without any publica- tion of details whereby the cases could be identified.—We are, Sir, yours, &c., GEORGE BENSON, Chairman.
CICELY M. CRAVEN, Hon. Secretary.
The Howard League for Penal Reform, .
Parliament Mansions, Orchard Street, London, S.W. I.
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