Professional Documents
Culture Documents
$XWKRUV-(+DOO:LOOLDPV
6RXUFH7KH0RGHUQ/DZ5HYLHZ9RO1R0DUSS
3XEOLVKHGE\%ODFNZHOO3XEOLVKLQJRQEHKDOIRIWKH0RGHUQ/DZ5HYLHZ
6WDEOH85/http://www.jstor.org/stable/1091446
$FFHVVHG
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Blackwell Publishing and Modern Law Review are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to The Modern Law Review.
http://www.jstor.org
STATUTES
THESTREET
OFI4ENCES
ACT,1959
ONEof the first things which Americanand other overseas visitors
to Britain interestedin socialproblemshave usuallyremarkedupon,
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
conversationswith these visitors, and we shall all be relieved. For
there can be no doubt that the visible and obviouspresenceof 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
embarrassmentin the last few years, and it was the rising public
concern over this which forced the Governmentwhen setting up
the Wolfenden Committeeto include in its terms of referencethe
subject of offences against the criminal law in connection with
prostitution and soliciting for immoral purposes1 The intention
of the present Act is to place on the Statute Book most of the
Committee'srecommendationsin this connection,with the declared
object of " cleaningthe streets " of the more obnous manifestations
of this trade in vice.
The statisticalpicture
Whetherin fact there had been an increasein the actual number
of prostitutes the Wolfenden Committeewas unable to discover.
The mere fact that there had been a sharp rise in the numberof
prosecutions and convictions suggests this, but it by no means
proves it. The rise may only reflect an increasein police activity
in this direction.2 Nevertheless, the figures for the number of
prosecutionsand convictions are quite startling, as the following
extract will show:
EztractfromTableXII of the Wolfenden
Report.3
STREET
OENCES (ENGLAND ANDWALE8)
Year No. of prosecutzons No. of consictions
1938 3,280 3,192
1946 4,423 4,393
1952 10,319 10,291
1955 11,916 11,878
See Reportof the Committeeon Homosesual Offencessnd Prostitution,Gmnd.
247, September1957,paras.2a>i23a,pp. 8142.
2 Ibtd. para. 231, p. 81.
3 Ibid. p. 143.
lr3
174 TEE MODERN LAW REVIEW VOL. 23