Statutes
| Date | 01 March 1960 |
| Published date | 01 March 1960 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1960.tb00583.x |
STATUTES
THE
STREET OFFENCES ACT,
1959
ONE
of the first things which American and other overseas visitors
to
Britain interested in social problems have usually remarked upon,
when visiting London, has been the open solicitation of men by
women prostitutes in the London streets.
If
the Street Offences
Act,
1959,
continues to have the success which
it
seems to enjoy
at present, this topic will
no
longer appear as routine in our
conversations with these visitors, and we shall all be relieved.
For
there can be no doubt that the visible and obvious presence of large
numbers of prostitutes in the streets in some parts of London
and of a few large provincial towns has been a source of grave
embarrassment in the last few years, and
it
was the rising public
concern over this which forced the Government when setting up
the Wolfenden Committee to include in its terms of reference the
subject of offences against the criminal law in connection with
prostitution and soliciting for immoral purposes.' The intention
of the present Act is to place on the Statute Book most of the
Committee's recommendations in this connection, with the declared
object of
"
cleaning the streets
"
of the more obvious manifestations
of this trade in vice.
The statistical picture
Whether in fact there had been an increase in the actual number
of prostitutes the Wolfenden Committee was unable to discover.
The mere fact that there had been a sharp rise in the number of
prosecutions and convictions suggests this, but
it
by no means
proves it. The rise may only reflect an increase in police activity
in this direction.2 Nevertheless, the figures for the number of
prosecutions and convictions are quite startling, as the following
extract will show
:
Extract
from
Table
XII
of the Wolfenden Report.s
STREET
OFFENCEB
(ENGLAND
AND
WALES)
Year
No.
of
prosecutions
No.
of
convictions
1938 3,280 3,192
1952 10,319 10,291
1955 11,910 11,878
1946 4,423 4,393
see
Report
of
the Committee
on
Homosexual
Offences
snd
Prostitution,
Cmnd.
247, September
1957,
paras. 229-232, pp. 81-82.
a
Zbid.
pars. 231, p. 81.
s
Zbid.
p.
143.
178
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