§ 131. Wing Commander Bullusasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he proposes to arrange for an analysis of cases of persons convicted of crimes of violence against the person for the post-war years 1946 to 1951.
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeI assume that my hon. and gallant Friend has in mind an analysis on the same lines as the analyses of cases of persons convicted of robbery with violence and kindred offences during the periods 1921–1930 and 1931–1940, which were given in the Report of the Departmental Committee on Corporal Punishment and in the Return to an Address in another place in July, 1951. The main object of those enquiries was to compare the subsequent records of those offenders who were sentenced to corporal punishment and those who were not. It is too soon to examine the subsequent records of those convicted in the years 1946–1948, and there260W would be no object in making such an examination in the case of those convicted in the years 1949–1951, when corporal punishment could no longer be ordered by the courts. If my hon. and gallant Friend has in mind a wider inquiry into crimes of violence generally, I would refer him to the reply given on 20th November to a question by my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon, East (Sir H. Williams).