Delinquency and the Treatment of Offenders (Hansard, 17 July 1961)

§ Mr. R. A. Butler

The Home Office continues to encourage and assist research undertaken by universities and other agencies on delinquency and related subjects. The origins and causes of delinquency are still baffling and little understood, and recently arrangements have been made with the London School of Economics for a long-term study, consisting mainly of the investigation of, and experimentation with, various methods of research into these questions, directed by Dr. Belson, of the Division of Research Techniques, under the supervision of Professor Kendall. This will be the largest single research project hitherto sponsored by the Home Office.

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At the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge, research is proceeding on several subjects, including crimes of violence in London, the state of crime in England and Wales, the social consequences of conviction, and the development of delinquent tendencies in children. At Oxford research is being done on detention centres and on delinquency among girls. University College, London, is engaged on a comparative study of the effect on young offenders of borstal training, detention in a detention centre, and imprisonment. Research on other aspects of delinquency is proceeding at the London School of Economics, Birk-beck College, London, and the Institute of Psychiatry, and at a number of other universities, including those of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Nottingham.

The Home Office Research Unit now has eight officers qualified to undertake research, together with supporting staff. The unit, while not formally restricted in its work, has so far aimed at fulfilling three functions:

(1) studying research on delinquency and the treatment of offenders and acting as adviser to the Home Office on this and allied subjects;
(2) making special investigations as required by the Home Office or by Departmental and other Committees, advisory bodies, etc.;
(3) carrying out a comprehensive programme of research on the treatment of offenders.

The first and third of these functions involve liaison with research workers in this and other countries, and it is especially hoped to develop the exchange of information between this country and the United States of America.

As part of the programme of research on the treatment of offenders, preliminary arrangements are being made for an extensive study to be carried out mainly within the Probation Service. This will be much the largest project so far attempted by the Research Unit, and will require the appointment of several additional workers. Its general objects will be:

(1) in co-operation with the Probation Service, to investigate both existing and experimental ways of handling probation case-loads and to consider what scope there may be for new methods;
(2) to examine the different ways in which probation officers carry out supervision, and the effects of these different methods on the various types of offender they have to deal with; it is hoped that this will lead to methods of matching offenders with treatment methods so as to produce the best result.

A number of the Home Office research studies mentioned in the White Paper have been completed; the results of five of them have in one form or another been published, and reports on two more are awaiting publication.

There is an immense amount of work to be done before we can claim to have acquired a substantial body of knowledge about the treatment of offenders, and it may be a long time before information based on research studies can be of material assistance to courts in deciding on the best way of dealing with particular offenders, but we shall make progress towards this goal as quickly as we can. In the meantime, the results of research are proving valuable within the penal system, where there is considerable scope for the application of research findings to the classification and treatment of offenders.