Orders of the Day — Criminal Justice Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 17 November 1960.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Lieut-Colonel Sir Thomas Moore Lieut-Colonel Sir Thomas Moore , Ayr 12:00, 17 November 1960

I appreciate that, but perhaps the hon. Gentleman will allow me to proceed with these criticisms.

In 1938, as we sorrowfully recall, there was widespread unemployment and far too much poverty. It was a fact, as we all know, that robbery was committed for the motive of gain, possibly by a hungry man, and violence was the sort of unhappy concomitant to it. But today all that has changed. We now have full employment, the Welfare State and plenty of money in the hands of the people. Why is it, therefore, that these crimes have tended to increase? We know that in 1938 robbery with violence was practically the only crime to which corporal punishment was applicable. I believe that the crimes of violence, very often with robbery—the crimes of which we all complain and about which we read in the morning and evening newspapers—are now committed for totally different reasons. They are committed sometimes for excitement, sometimes from frustrated lust, and even, as I have previously said, sometimes apparently for the fun of the thing.