The End of Judges' Floggings The Report of the Committee
on Corporal Punishment appeared at a most opportune moment ; it should help to decide finally a long controversy which recently has been brought to a head by the sentence passed on the " Mayfair men." The Committee recommends that corporal punish- ment should be completely abolished for all court offences, and should be retained only as a means of maintaining prison discipline. The Committee's grounds for this conclusion are as interesting and important as the conclusion itself ; for while its recommendations will please all who are already convinced of the barbarity of this form of punishment, the Report should also persuade those who hitherto have believed .n its deterrent effect. After examining carefully all the 2vidence the Committee concludes : " We have been unable to find any body of facts or figures showing that the introduc- ion of a power of flogging has produced a decrease in the .iumber of offences for which it may be imposed." This ,onclusion leaves the defence of corporal punishment in the .,ands of those who believe in purely retributory punishment, without any deterrent or reformative value, and even they must make logically an exception in the case of juvenile offences ; thus there should be no strong opposition to the immediate adoption of the Committee's recommendations. The Committee's own adoption of the principle that purely retributory punishment is not justifiable should have a good effect on public opinion, and the administration of the law ; the sooner this principle is generally applied, the better.
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