PLOGGING AND CRIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 224, 22 September 1925, Page 9

PLOGGING AND CRIME.

(To ttie Editor.) Sir, —Your correspondent, R. Sinclair, evidently is strongly in favour of the retention of some of the inhuman punishments which were iuflicted on humans by their fellow humans in the days when torture of prisoners was popular. He must admit, however, that as man has become more civilised, these inhuman punishments have gradually died out, and have been replaced by saner methods of correction. In the years to come, when the Hogging of sexual offenders has been abolished, and the more highly-civilised people of that time use educational methods instead of torture as a corrective, the present day punishments, such as hanging and flogging, will be looked back upon as acts of barbarism, committed by a people only partly civilised. Mr. Sinclair admits that this class of crime is very common nowadays. Does this not go to prove that the present brutal method of correction is not an effective deterrent, and never will be? Flogging will not strengthen the morals of these morailyweak victims, any more than it will drive the devil out of lunatics, as it was supposed to do in the dark days of the past. It must be remembered that many of these unfortunate sexual offenders are perfect citizens in other respects, and it is our duty to help them to overcome their one pathetic weakness by the most humane methods, and not by the infliction of useless cruelty.—l "am, etc., H. W. TAYLOR.