Cruelty to Children
| Published date | 01 November 1988 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201838805200404 |
| Author | Martin Wasik |
| Date | 01 November 1988 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
CRUELTY
TO
CHILDREN
Martin Wasik*
The Criminal Justice Act 1988 will contain some important new
provisions affecting criminal procedure in respect of children. As
well as removing the need for corroboration of the evidence of a
child witness in a criminal case, and allowing a child to give
evidence by way of a video link, the Act, by section 42, increases
the maximum penalty available to the courts for the offence of
cruelty to children. The evidential provisions have already been
much discussed in the media. The purpose of this article is to
examine the likely implications of the new statutory maximum,
and to use the opportunity to review some aspects of the existing
law on cruelty.
Section 42, increasing the maximum penalty available to the
courts to punish offences under section 1 of the Children and
Young Persons Act 1933, from two years to ten years, attracted
little comment but widespread acquiescence in Parliament. The
Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, first proposed the change in a
speech reported in the press in June 1987,1after noting the "great
public concern" engendered by figures such as the 42 per cent
increase in the number of children now appearing on child abuse
registers maintained by the NSPCC, a very large increase in
reported cases of sexual abuse of children and a substantial increase
in reports of serious and fatal injuries inflicted upon children. The
Earl of Caithness, Minister of State in the Home Office, who
introduced the debate on the relevant clause in the House of
Lords, commented 2that the worst cases of abuse of children
usually involved a serious offence of violence, probably falling
within the ambit of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 or
the Sexual Offences Act 1956, where heavy maximum penalties
were already available. Sometimes, however, where the child had
• Senior Lecturer in Law, Manchester University.
1[1987] The Times, June 6.
2[1987] The Times, July 15.
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