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Wolfenden report

December 15, 2023

The Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (better known as the Wolfenden report, after Sir John Wolfenden, the chairman of the committee) was published in the United Kingdom on 4 September 1957 after a succession of well-known men, including Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Michael Pitt-Rivers, John Gielgud, and Peter Wildeblood were convicted of homosexual offences.

Background edit

Under the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, any homosexual activity between males was illegal. After the Second World War, there had been an increase in arrests and prosecutions, and by the end of 1954, in England and Wales, there were 1,069 men in prison for homosexual acts, with a mean age of 37 years.[1] During a time of several significant trials, notably that of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, the Conservative government set up a departmental committee (in the Home Office and Scottish Home Department responsible for criminal law) under Sir John Wolfenden to consider both homosexual offences and prostitution.

Committee edit

The committee of 15 (4 women and 11 men) was led by Sir John Wolfenden (1906–1985), a former headmaster of both Uppingham and of Shrewsbury; and who in 1950 was appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Reading.[2] He later became Director of the British Museum.

In addition to the chairman, the committee members were the following:

The committee first met on 15 September 1954 and met on 62 days, 32 of which were used for interviewing witnesses. Wolfenden suggested at an early stage that for the sake of the ladies in the room, that they use the terms Huntley & Palmers after the biscuit manufacturers – Huntleys for homosexuals, and Palmers for prostitutes. Evidence was heard from police and probation officers, psychiatrists, religious leaders (who in those days were at the forefront of homosexual law reform[6]), and gay men whose lives had been affected by the law.

The estimated cost of preparing the report was £8,046 of which £735 represented the estimated cost of printing and publication. The secretary for the committee was W. C. Roberts (Home Office) and his assistant was E. J. Freeman (Scottish Home Department).

Getting gay men to give evidence proved to be very difficult for the committee: Wolfenden considered placing an advert in a newspaper or magazine, but the committee instead decided to locate three men willing to give evidence: Peter Wildeblood, Carl Winter, and Patrick Trevor-Roper. Wildeblood had been convicted and sent to prison. Winter was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum and Trevor-Roper was a distinguished eye surgeon and brother of the famous historian Hugh Trevor-Roper. In order to protect their identities, Trevor-Roper was referred to as the "Doctor" while Winter was referred to as "Mr White".[7]

Recommendations edit

The committee recommended that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence".[8] All but James Adair were in favour of this and, contrary to some medical and psychiatric witnesses' evidence at that time, found that "homosexuality cannot legitimately be regarded as a disease, because in many cases it is the only symptom and is compatible with full mental health in other respects." The report added:

The law's function is to preserve public order and decency, to protect the citizen from what is offensive or injurious, and to provide sufficient safeguards against exploitation and corruption of others ... It is not, in our view, the function of the law to intervene in the private life of citizens, or to seek to enforce any particular pattern of behaviour.

The recommended age of consent was 21 years (the age of majority in the UK then, though for mixed sex couples the age of consent was 16 and 16-year-olds could marry with their parents' permission).

The report also discussed the rise in street prostitution at the time, which it associated with "community instability" and "weakening of the family". As a result, there was a police crackdown on street prostitution following the report[9] and the Street Offences Act 1959 was passed.

Aftermath edit

The report's recommendations attracted considerable public debate, including a famous exchange of views in publications by Lord Devlin, a leading British judge, whose ideas and publications argued against the report's philosophical basis, and H. L. A. Hart, a leading jurisprudential scholar, who provided argument in its support.

In The Enforcement of Morals, Devlin states that the Wolfenden report "is recognized to be an excellent study of two very difficult legal and social problems".[10] Devlin attacks the principle, derived from John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, that the law ought not concern itself with "private immorality", saying that the report "requires special circumstances to be shown to justify the intervention of the law. I think that this is wrong in principle".[11]

In late 1957, shortly after the report was published, the General Assembly of the Church of England, by a vote of 155 to 138, passed a resolution "[t]hat this Assembly generally approves the principles on which the criminal law concerned with sexual behaviour should be based as stated by the Wolfenden Committee, and also its recommendations relating to homosexuality, but considers that the recommendations relating to prostitution require further study".[12]

The recommendations eventually led to the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967, applying to England and Wales only, that replaced the previous law on sodomy contained in the Offences against the Person Act 1861 and the 1885 Labouchere Amendment which outlawed every homosexual act short of sodomy. The Act did not become law until a decade after the report was published in 1957.

The historian Patrick Higgins has described a number of flaws with the report: "its failure to understand or appreciate (except in the most negative terms) the importance of the homosexual subculture".[13]

It later became known[citation needed] that Wolfenden's son Jeremy Wolfenden was gay.[3]

In 1997, John Wolfenden came 45th in the Pink Paper’s list of the “top 500 lesbian and gay heroes”.[14]

See also edit

References edit

  • Wolfenden Report - 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act- UK Parliament Living Heritage

Footnotes edit

  1. ^ Higgins 1996, p. 56.
  2. ^ Lewis 2016, p. 6.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis 2016, p. 7.
  4. ^ Lewis 2016, pp. 7–8.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis 2016, p. 8.
  6. ^ Bedell, Geraldine (24 June 2007). "Coming out of the Dark Ages". The Observer. London: Guardian Media Group. from the original on 31 August 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  7. ^ Higgins 1996, pp. 41–42.
  8. ^ Lewis 2016, p. 275.
  9. ^ Weeks 1981, p. 240.
  10. ^ Devlin 1965.
  11. ^ Devlin 1965, p. 11.
  12. ^ "HOMOSEXUAL OFFENCES AND PROSTITUTION". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Lords. 4 December 1957. col. 734. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  13. ^ Higgins 1996, p. 89.
  14. ^ Pink Paper (500). 26 September 1997. p. 19.

Bibliography edit

  • Berg, Charles (1959). Fear, Punishment, Anxiety and the Wolfenden Report. George Allen & Unwin.
  • Chesser, Eustace (1958). Live and Let Live: The Moral of the Wolfenden Report. Taylor Garnett & Evans.
  • Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (1957). Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
  • Devlin, Patrick (1965). The Enforcement of Morals. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285018-8. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  • Grey, Antony (1992). Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation. Sinclair-Stevenson.
  • Higgins, Patrick (1996). Heterosexual Dictatorship: Male Homosexuality in Postwar Britain. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-1-85702-355-8.
  • Lewis, Brian (2016). Wolfenden's Witnesses: Homosexuality in Postwar Britain. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9781137321503. ISBN 978-1-137-32150-3.
  • Weeks, Jeffery (1981). Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. London: Longman.

Further reading edit

  • "Homosexuality 'Should Not Be a Crime'". BBC News. 4 September 1957. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  • Johnson, Paul (2011). (slideshow). ILGA-Europe. Archived from the original (PPSX) on 29 October 2011. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  • "Timeline: Gay Fight for Equal Rights". BBC News. 6 December 2002. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  • "Wolfenden Report, 1957 (Conclusions)". British Library. Retrieved 26 March 2021.

December 15, 2023
wolfenden, report, report, departmental, committee, homosexual, offences, prostitution, better, known, after, john, wolfenden, chairman, committee, published, united, kingdom, september, 1957, after, succession, well, known, including, lord, montagu, beaulieu,. The Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution better known as the Wolfenden report after Sir John Wolfenden the chairman of the committee was published in the United Kingdom on 4 September 1957 after a succession of well known men including Lord Montagu of Beaulieu Michael Pitt Rivers John Gielgud and Peter Wildeblood were convicted of homosexual offences Contents 1 Background 2 Committee 3 Recommendations 4 Aftermath 5 See also 6 References 6 1 Footnotes 6 2 Bibliography 7 Further readingBackground editUnder the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 any homosexual activity between males was illegal After the Second World War there had been an increase in arrests and prosecutions and by the end of 1954 in England and Wales there were 1 069 men in prison for homosexual acts with a mean age of 37 years 1 During a time of several significant trials notably that of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu the Conservative government set up a departmental committee in the Home Office and Scottish Home Department responsible for criminal law under Sir John Wolfenden to consider both homosexual offences and prostitution Committee editThe committee of 15 4 women and 11 men was led by Sir John Wolfenden 1906 1985 a former headmaster of both Uppingham and of Shrewsbury and who in 1950 was appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Reading 2 He later became Director of the British Museum In addition to the chairman the committee members were the following James Adair former Procurator Fiscal for Glasgow 3 Mary Cohen 3 vice president of the City of Glasgow Girl Guides and chairwoman of the Scottish Association of Girls Clubs Desmond Curran 3 senior psychiatrist at St George s Hospital London and psychiatric consultant to the Royal Navy V A Demant Anglo Catholic priest serving as Canon of Christ Church Oxford and Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford 3 Sir Kenneth Diplock Recorder of Oxford and High Court judge 3 Sir Hugh Linstead Conservative Member of Parliament MP for Putney barrister and pharmaceutical chemist 3 Peter Kerr 12th Marquess of Lothian 3 a Foreign Office minister Kathleen Lovibond chairwoman of the Uxbridge juvenile magistrates courtand member of the Conservative women s organisation citation needed who became Mayor of Uxbridge in 1956 4 Victor Mishcon solicitor and Labour member and chairman of the London County Council 5 Goronwy Rees Principal of the University College of Wales Aberystwyth 5 resigned from the committee in April 1956 R F V Scott Presbyterian minister of St Columba s Church London Church of Scotland 5 resigned from the committee in March 1956 Lady Lily Stopford ophthalmologist and magistrate 5 William Wells Labour MP for Walsall North and barrister 5 Joseph Whitby general practitioner with psychiatric experience 5 The committee first met on 15 September 1954 and met on 62 days 32 of which were used for interviewing witnesses Wolfenden suggested at an early stage that for the sake of the ladies in the room that they use the terms Huntley amp Palmers after the biscuit manufacturers Huntleys for homosexuals and Palmers for prostitutes Evidence was heard from police and probation officers psychiatrists religious leaders who in those days were at the forefront of homosexual law reform 6 and gay men whose lives had been affected by the law The estimated cost of preparing the report was 8 046 of which 735 represented the estimated cost of printing and publication The secretary for the committee was W C Roberts Home Office and his assistant was E J Freeman Scottish Home Department Getting gay men to give evidence proved to be very difficult for the committee Wolfenden considered placing an advert in a newspaper or magazine but the committee instead decided to locate three men willing to give evidence Peter Wildeblood Carl Winter and Patrick Trevor Roper Wildeblood had been convicted and sent to prison Winter was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum and Trevor Roper was a distinguished eye surgeon and brother of the famous historian Hugh Trevor Roper In order to protect their identities Trevor Roper was referred to as the Doctor while Winter was referred to as Mr White 7 Recommendations editThe committee recommended that homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence 8 All but James Adair were in favour of this and contrary to some medical and psychiatric witnesses evidence at that time found that homosexuality cannot legitimately be regarded as a disease because in many cases it is the only symptom and is compatible with full mental health in other respects The report added The law s function is to preserve public order and decency to protect the citizen from what is offensive or injurious and to provide sufficient safeguards against exploitation and corruption of others It is not in our view the function of the law to intervene in the private life of citizens or to seek to enforce any particular pattern of behaviour The recommended age of consent was 21 years the age of majority in the UK then though for mixed sex couples the age of consent was 16 and 16 year olds could marry with their parents permission The report also discussed the rise in street prostitution at the time which it associated with community instability and weakening of the family As a result there was a police crackdown on street prostitution following the report 9 and the Street Offences Act 1959 was passed Aftermath editThe report s recommendations attracted considerable public debate including a famous exchange of views in publications by Lord Devlin a leading British judge whose ideas and publications argued against the report s philosophical basis and H L A Hart a leading jurisprudential scholar who provided argument in its support In The Enforcement of Morals Devlin states that the Wolfenden report is recognized to be an excellent study of two very difficult legal and social problems 10 Devlin attacks the principle derived from John Stuart Mill s On Liberty that the law ought not concern itself with private immorality saying that the report requires special circumstances to be shown to justify the intervention of the law I think that this is wrong in principle 11 In late 1957 shortly after the report was published the General Assembly of the Church of England by a vote of 155 to 138 passed a resolution t hat this Assembly generally approves the principles on which the criminal law concerned with sexual behaviour should be based as stated by the Wolfenden Committee and also its recommendations relating to homosexuality but considers that the recommendations relating to prostitution require further study 12 The recommendations eventually led to the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 applying to England and Wales only that replaced the previous law on sodomy contained in the Offences against the Person Act 1861 and the 1885 Labouchere Amendment which outlawed every homosexual act short of sodomy The Act did not become law until a decade after the report was published in 1957 The historian Patrick Higgins has described a number of flaws with the report its failure to understand or appreciate except in the most negative terms the importance of the homosexual subculture 13 It later became known citation needed that Wolfenden s son Jeremy Wolfenden was gay 3 In 1997 John Wolfenden came 45th in the Pink Paper s list of the top 500 lesbian and gay heroes 14 See also edit nbsp Law portal nbsp LGBT portal nbsp United Kingdom portalHomosexual Law Reform Society LGBT rights in the United Kingdom Victim 1961 film 1961 film starring Dirk Bogarde widely held to have contributed to the liberalisation of cultural and legal attitudes to homosexuality in the UK Consenting Adults television play by Julian Mitchell with Charles Dance as Sir John Wolfenden References editWolfenden Report 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act UK Parliament Living HeritageFootnotes edit Higgins 1996 p 56 Lewis 2016 p 6 a b c d e f g h Lewis 2016 p 7 Lewis 2016 pp 7 8 a b c d e f Lewis 2016 p 8 Bedell Geraldine 24 June 2007 Coming out of the Dark Ages The Observer London Guardian Media Group Archived from the original on 31 August 2013 Retrieved 10 March 2018 Higgins 1996 pp 41 42 Lewis 2016 p 275 Weeks 1981 p 240 Devlin 1965 Devlin 1965 p 11 HOMOSEXUAL OFFENCES AND PROSTITUTION Parliamentary Debates Hansard House of Lords 4 December 1957 col 734 Retrieved 26 June 2023 Higgins 1996 p 89 Pink Paper 500 26 September 1997 p 19 Bibliography edit Berg Charles 1959 Fear Punishment Anxiety and the Wolfenden Report George Allen amp Unwin Chesser Eustace 1958 Live and Let Live The Moral of the Wolfenden Report Taylor Garnett amp Evans Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution 1957 Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution London Her Majesty s Stationery Office Devlin Patrick 1965 The Enforcement of Morals London Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 285018 8 Retrieved 10 March 2018 Grey Antony 1992 Quest for Justice Towards Homosexual Emancipation Sinclair Stevenson Higgins Patrick 1996 Heterosexual Dictatorship Male Homosexuality in Postwar Britain London Fourth Estate ISBN 978 1 85702 355 8 Lewis Brian 2016 Wolfenden s Witnesses Homosexuality in Postwar Britain Basingstoke England Palgrave Macmillan doi 10 1057 9781137321503 ISBN 978 1 137 32150 3 Weeks Jeffery 1981 Sex Politics and Society The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800 London Longman Further reading edit Homosexuality Should Not Be a Crime BBC News 4 September 1957 Retrieved 10 March 2018 Johnson Paul 2011 Law and Homosexuality Lessons from British History slideshow ILGA Europe Archived from the original PPSX on 29 October 2011 Retrieved 10 March 2018 Timeline Gay Fight for Equal Rights BBC News 6 December 2002 Retrieved 10 March 2018 Wolfenden Report 1957 Conclusions British Library Retrieved 26 March 2021 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Wolfenden report amp oldid 1185723926, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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