OFFENCES AGAINST YOUNG PERSONS.

White Ribbon, Volume 32, Issue 380, 18 March 1927, Page 14

OFFENCES AGAINST YOUNG PERSONS.

Some very thought-provoking matter is contained in a report of the Departmental Committee on Sexual Offences against Young People in England. The Committee find out that many men escape, because parents object to a child being brought into court over and ovei again to give evidence, thus keeping her mind alive to the unpleasant experience. They stress the need of proper accommodation in the courts, also that a child should not be compelled to attend a court many days, owing to the uncertainty as to when her case shall be taken. They emphatically recommend that women should always be present in the court as police, probation officers, jurors, and justices. They recommend that a woman should get an immediate order of separation, with custody of children ami maintenance, when the husband has been convicted of an offence against his own daughter. A divorce, of course, is obtainable on these grounds, but it is a long and expensive process, and would expose the child to further danger. They recommend that the age of consent should be raised to 17 years: three members disagree with this. The majority (2 dissenting) recommend the abolition of the defence of the “reasonable belief that a girl was 16 years or over,’* which is now allowed to a man of 23 or under, though abolished for older men.