Recent Judicial Decisions
| Published date | 01 October 1949 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4902200402 |
| Date | 01 October 1949 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
card,
but
experience has shown that in respect of the persistent offender
-and
there are far too many of
them-there
would follow a further
list of imprisonments: 12 months (release for further crime after
8months), 3 years (release after 2years), etc. And what of the public
on whom such a man has preyed and on whom he has clearly indicated
he intends to prey, the public who have footed the
bill-a
very con-
siderable
one-which
has been incurred in his education and training ?
Surely the time has been reached when he should be prevented from
committing further crime.
There
appears to be one method, and
only one method, of doing this and the 1948 Act has at last provided
this.
The
old Act of 1908 was based on the right idea
but
the pro-
cedure of proving that an individual was a habitual criminal was so
unwieldy that it fell into disuse until such a charge became the exception
rather than the rule.
The
Police will welcome the new procedure which is simple in
operation.
What
could have been more discouraging to
them
than
to
see a man with a really long list of convictions who had been " on the
run"
for a long time, sentenced to a term of say, 3 years (2, with
remission) on two or three charges, with about 60 or 70 other offences
taken into consideration? These old lags (the term will now, we
presume, disappear) are not easily caught.
They
know all the tricks
and many hours of police work are involved in bringing them to justice,
sometimes even more hours than were contained in the sentence
imposed under the old system.
We hope the courts will take full advantage of the preventive
detention provisions.
They
are intended for use against the really
persistent offender and no one would suggest any extension of this
plan. We have some little doubt about the immediate reaction of
Judges, Chairmen of Quarter Sessions and Recorders although we
know some useful sentences have already been passed.
The
Act
contemplates special places of detention for persons so sentenced and
we understand no such places have as yet been provided.
The
Act is
operative, however, and it contains provisions which will unquestion-
ably reduce crime if they are used, for however pleasant and easy life
in prison has become, those detained cannot prey upon an unsuspecting
public whilst they are inside.
Recent
Judicial
Decisions
THE
LAW
OF PROVOCATION
IN
RELATION
TO
HOMICIDE
R. v. Duffy
ON a charge of murder in R. v. Duffy (1949, 1
All
E.R. 932) the
appellant pleaded
that
she had been
provoke~
an~
that
therefo.re
she was only guilty of manslaughter. After a direction by the
tnal
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