Corporal Punishment
| Date | 01 April 1938 |
| Published date | 01 April 1938 |
| Author | H.E. Norman |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455053800201201 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
THE DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE’S REPORT
BY
H. E. NORMAN.
(Secretary, National Association of Probation Officers)
F
anyone has doubts on the subject of corporal
&dquo;If corporal punishment were to be retained, the
punishment, particularly if he is inclined to be in
duty of administering it should not be laid upon
favour of its retention, he should read the Report
the police for it was a duty which had the effect
of the Departmental Committee on the subject. It
of inspiring fear and resentment in the minds of
can be bought from the Government Stationer for
the c’hildren of the district, in place of those feel-
2/6.
ings of confidence and trust so essential to suc-
I must confess that until I was invited to pre-
cessful police work among children.&dquo;
pare written evidence for the Committee, I had no
Naturally it is difficult to decide who is the beset
clear ideas about corporal punishment.
I had
person to inflict the punishment, and suggestions to
doubts about its effectiveness.
I
knew it
to
the Departmental Committee varied between the
be unpleasant.
The result of my experience
schoolmaster of the local school a.nd the magistrate
as a probation officer, and of the years when I was
who gives the sentence.
Some Chief Constable
in charge of a hostel for convicted offenders led me
recommended that it
should be inflicted by
to abandon the practice in the upbringing of my
probation officers.
The only solution is the
own children.
The thought I had to put into my
abolition of a method of punishment which is not
evidence, and the report which has just been pub-
likely to be effective whoever is charged with inflict-
lished, have cleared my mind of any doubts on the
ing it.
subject.
Corporal punishment of adults or adolescents by
The Report is another milestone on the road of
order of the Superior Courts is-in the view of the
progress in penal treatment.
The Commitee recom-
Committee a much more serious matter than the
mends the...
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