SIR,—I apologise to Sir Geoffrey Haworth if my condensation: 'the
magistrates (i.e., the police)' was misleading. I did not mean to imply that the police overtly ask for particular punishments; 1 was sug- gesting that they nevertheless exert a great deal of influence and that if magistrates' functions were in- creased this influence would probably be greater.
The magistrates' courts are, after all, called police- courts. The police present the case against the de- fendant and the ways in which they may do this have been adversely commented on this year by both the Law Society and the Probation Officers' Asso- ciation. Where a defendant is unrepresented, his case, too, is often influenced by the police who may urge a plea of guilty or the admission of other offences, or give other 'advice.' The police often supply the evidence of an accused person's back- ground, circumstances and character; their reports can be highly prejudiced but it is on such reports that a magistrate deciding upon a treatment would have to depend. It was reported recently that one Metropolitan Police area had initiated a system whereby certain offenders, instead of being brought to court, would be talked to (and the parents given advice) by 'specially chosen officers.' This may well be an admirable idea, but I somehow feel that it is an encroachment by the police into a field not properly theirs—which links up with point two of Richard Milner's letter.
I did not say in my article that the correlation between number of crimes and number of police- men demonstrated a causal relation, any more than I committed myself as to which was the cause of what. But if, as Mr. Milner would seem to imply, there is no causal relation, then on what does the number of police per head of population depend— the number of laws on the statute-book, books to be burned, or political demonstrators to be carried away?
But I would like to try another blank shot. As Professor Radzinowicz has just pointed out, there is an inverse correlation between the amount of money stolen and the chances of being caught and the former has been steadily on the increase for ten years.
JOHN SYLVESTER
4 Deauville Mansions, Elms Crescent, SW4
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