The Spinster and Her Enemies - Feminish

‘THE SORT OF THING THAT MIGHT HAPPEN TO ANY MAN’
indecent assault and indecent exposure were mentally defective. 52
A parliamentary discussion of the same year in which the two
women MPs, Lady Astor and Mrs Wintringham, took this line
was reported in the Shield. Mrs Wintringham said she believed
that offenders were mentally deficient, not just insane and wanted
machinery set up for the examination of offenders whom she
described as ‘moral degenerates’. Out of this discussion the
Departmental Committee on Sex Offences was set up. The
Committee’s report was not sympathetic to the idea that offenders
were sick. Large numbers of witnesses had apparently
recommended mental examination, but the committee had not,
after carefully studying the evidence, found the experts to bear
out the opinion that many offenders were insane or defective.
Of the 108 men remanded to prison in the three years to the end
of March 1924 for indecent assault, incest and carnal knowledge
of a girl under 16, none could be certified insane and only 8
mentally deficient. The report recommended appointment of
skilled medical examiners to the courts, that all indecent
exposure offenders be examined and other sex of fenders only
where there were previous convictions for sex offences or where
the court suspected disease or defect. It also recommended the
possibility of prolonged detention in suitable institutions of
repeated offenders. 53
In 1932 the Shield carried an article on ‘Sexual Offences
against Young Children’. The introduction asked, ‘When are
we going to take effective measures for the better protection of
little children from assaults by unbalanced and degenerate men?’
The article stated the aim of the AMSH that a man who was
not certified insane or feeble-minded but who had committed
three offences should be deemed a ‘moral imbecile’ and detained
indefinitely. 54 The AMSH with three other societies drafted a
Bill which provided for the medical examination of all offenders
against children under 13 years plus all indecent exposure
offenders, and the indefinite detention of offenders after three
convictions. In October 1931 the Shield was urging that all
attention should be diverted from the age of consent and the
abolition of the reasonable cause to believe clause to concentrate
on this Bill. In November the AMSH convened a conference in
London which agreed to appoint a committee consisting of a
nominee from each of fourteen societies to promote the limited
Bill.
The medical approach was not universally popular with
campaigners, particularly the feminists. In a letter entitled ‘When
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