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11 Fed. Probation 3 (1947)
Crime and Its Treatment in Postwar England

handle is hein.journals/fedpro11 and id is 197 raw text is: Crime and Its Treatment in Postwar England BY HERMANN MANNHEIM, DR.JUR. Reader in Criminology, The University of London N OBODY in his senses could have failed to be prepared for a considerable rise in crime immediately after the war. The crime wave in fact has arrived, in England as in probably every other country, though perhaps not to the extent originally expected. The actual nature of this increase in terms of types of crime, local dis- tribution, and similar factors, cannot as yet be stated because, among other reasons, no criminal statistics have so far been published for the whole of England and Wales for the years since 1938. We have to rely, therefore, mainly on figures given from time to time by the Home Secretary in replies to questions in the House of Commons, on local police reports and on the press. On the whole, more information for juveniles than for adults has been forthcoming from these sources and more for the London area than for provincial districts. As shown in the following tables, the rise has been somewhat greater with regard to the numbers of crimes known to the police than of persons found guilty. In the latter category, figures even have declined for some age groups since the end of the war, although there has been a considerable all- round increase as compared with 1938. TABLE 1 NUMBER OF PERSONS FOUND GUILTY OF INDICTABLE OFFENCES IN MAGISTRATES' COURTS (ENGLAND AND WALES) TOTAL UNDER 14 14 AND UNDER 17 17 AND UNDER 21 21 AND OVER YEAR Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female 1938 60,613 9,238 14,723 835 11,413 904 8,181 1,266 26,296 6,233 1944 79,132 16,872 22,520 1,558 14,207 1,836 9,418 2,442 32,987 11,036 1945 86,105 15,759 22,920 1,500 16,681 1,722 11,037 2,134 35,467 10,403 *1946 84,404 15,020 21,764 1,432 16,159 1,601 10,672 2,114 35,809 9,873 *Covers period from April 1945 to March 1946. The figures in Table 1 are taken from Hansard as of June 20, 1946 (cols. 361/2). They exclude, on the one hand, nonindictable (i.e. compara- tively minor) offences and, on the other, all offences dealt with by higher courts (i.e. Assizes and Quarter Sessions) for which no figures for the whole country are as yet available. At London Sessions, in 1939, cases numbered 800 with 1,250 accused persons, and in 1946, 1,250 cases with 2,000 accused persons.' The proportion of female offenders, which had risen from 15 percent in 1938 to 22 percent in 1943, is now 17 percent. In the Metropolitan area, the number of persons arrested for all offences (including those dealt with by higher courts) has fallen from 67,676 in 1938, to 57,141 in 1945. It has to be borne in mind, however, that the average 1. The Times, December 20. 1946. 2. These and the following figures in Table 2 for London are taken from the Report of the Commissioner of the Metropolis for the year 1946. civilian population of Greater London numbered only 6,908,000 in 1945, which is a decrease of 1,792,000 since 1938. Moreover, it should be stressed that the fall in arrests is mainly due to the improved position regarding drunkenness offences: here the number of persons arrested went down from 19,705 in1938, to 8,485 in 1945.2 TABLE 2 INDICTABLE OFFENCES KNOWN TO THE POLICE IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OFFENCES 1938 1945 All Cases ........................ 95,280 128,954 Breakings ............................................ 13,438 22,955 *Larcenies and receiving ......... 27,906 33,981 Robberies and assaults with intent to rob .................................. 162 354 *Within the larcenies group, larcenies from the person and from houses have greatly increased, whereas larcenies from vehicles and of bicycles have declined. The percentage of crimes cleared up in the Metropolitan area was 27.1 in 1938 and 24.6 in 1945

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