ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output Curing sexual deviance : medical approaches to sex- ual offenders in England, 1919-1959 https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40188/ Version: Full Version Citation: Weston, Janet (2016) Curing sexual deviance : medical ap- proaches to sexual offenders in England, 1919-1959. [Thesis] (Unpub- lished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email Curing sexual deviance Medical approaches to sexual offenders in England, 1919-1959 Janet Weston Department of History, Classics, and Archaeology Birkbeck, University of London Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2015 1 Declaration: I confirm that all material presented in this thesis is my own work, except where otherwise indicated. Signed ............................................... 2 Abstract This thesis examines medical approaches to sexual offenders in England between 1919 and 1959. It explores how doctors conceptualised sexual crimes and those who committed them, and how these ideas were implemented in medical and legal settings. It uses medical and criminological texts alongside information about specific court proceedings and offenders' lives to set out two overarching arguments. Firstly, it contends that sexual crime, and the sexual offender, are useful categories for analysis. Examining the medical theories that were put forward about the 'sexual offender', broadly defined, and the ways in which such theories were used, reveals important features of medico-legal thought and practice in relation to sexuality, crime, and 'normal' or healthy behaviour. This broad category has often been overlooked in favour of research into much more specific sexual identities, acts, or offences. Secondly, this thesis argues that clinical theories in relation to sexual offenders were remarkably diverse, but that this diversity and resultant flexibility were key to their usefulness for doctors and the judiciary alike. Doctors did not hold firmly to any single aetiological model, nor claim that all sexual offenders could be cured. The legal and penal systems could deploy medical approaches to justify extremely varied decisions, individualising responses to sexual crime insofar as the legal system would allow. The ways in which medical theories were incorporated and shaped by the legal system, and the flexible nature of these theories themselves, extended the variety of possible outcomes for sexual offenders without fundamentally altering their status. These medical approaches, established over the early to mid-twentieth century in England, laid important foundations for later years. This project opens up new ways of understanding medico- legal theory and practice as they relate to a wide range of human sexual behaviour. 3 Acknowledgements This research was funded by a studentship from the School of Social Sciences, History, and Philosophy at Birkbeck, and I would like to extend my thanks to the anonymous donor whose generosity made this possible. Their support of postgraduate research, and of Birkbeck in particular, deserves recognition. I have benefited enormously from the wisdom and enthusiasm of many scholars, at Birkbeck and beyond. Joanna Bourke has been an exemplary supervisor, and her insights and support have been indispensible. Sean Brady's interest and encouragement in the earliest stages of this project, and indeed throughout, were invaluable. Special mention must go to Hazel Croft, Stef Eastoe, and Susie Shapland for their time and feedback. I am grateful to the archivists who have searched their repositories and responded to my queries, even when their answers were in the negative. Staff at Birmingham Archives and Heritage, the London Metropolitan Archives, the Modern Records Centre in Warwick, and the West Yorkshire Archive Service have all been particularly helpful. I am also grateful to the staff of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, who very kindly allowed me access to their historical records. The decision to return to university to undertake this project was a momentous one, and my family and friends have excelled themselves in their displays of confidence that this project was both achievable and worthwhile. For this and much more besides, my particular thanks go to Owen Roberts. His boundless support, encouragement, and a remarkable willingness to discuss and debate this thesis at length, have made all the difference. 4 Table of Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................... 6 Abbreviations ............................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................ 7 1.1 Summary of arguments ......................................................................................... 8 1.2 Theoretical considerations .................................................................................. 14 1.3 Historiographical contexts .................................................................................. 23 1.4 Primary Sources .................................................................................................. 35 1.5 Chapter outline ................................................................................................... 40 Chapter 2: The 'curative treatment of crime'............................................... 44 2.1 Rehabilitation and reform ................................................................................... 47 2.2 Developments in medicine ................................................................................. 57 2.3 Legal procedures and curing crime ..................................................................... 70 Part One: Medicine in Theory ........................................................................ 83 Chapter 3: Researching the sexual offender ................................................ 84 3.1 From sexual offender to patient ......................................................................... 87 3.2 'Normal' and 'abnormal': The sexual perversions ............................................. 100 3.3 The female sexual offender .............................................................................. 112 Chapter 4: Causes and treatments ............................................................ 123 4.1 The network of causes ...................................................................................... 125 4.2 The psychological approach .............................................................................. 133 4.3 From hereditary taint to sexual psychopath ..................................................... 142 4.4 Physical causes and physical cures ................................................................... 149 Part Two: Medicine in Practice ..................................................................... 162 Chapter 5: Working with(in) the law ......................................................... 163 5.1 Developments in legal procedure ..................................................................... 166 5.2 Medical evidence: Its presence and absence ................................................... 176 5.3 The nature and reception of medical evidence ................................................ 188 Chapter 6: 'Cured by hospital treatment' .................................................. 202 6.1 Treatment in prison .......................................................................................... 205 6.2 Treatment at liberty .......................................................................................... 216 6.3 Who could be cured? ........................................................................................ 228 Chapter 7: Conclusion ............................................................................... 241 Bibliography ................................................................................................ 254 5 List of Figures Figure 1: Proportion of prisoners examined as to their mental health, 1920-1969 ......... 77 Figure 2: Extract from William Norwood East's 'Mental Classification of Criminals' ..... 105 Figure 3: Summary of offenders excluded from treatment at Wormwood Scrubs ........ 230 Abbreviations BMA British Medical Association BMJ British Medical Journal DSM Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ECT Electro-convulsive therapy ISTD Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency JMS Journal of Mental Science KC King's Counsel NHS National Health Service RAF Royal Air Force SOTP Sexual Offender Treatment Programme UK United Kingdom USA United States of America VD Venereal disease 6 Chapter 1: Introduction In the late 1960s, Russell George, a convicted sex offender, reflected upon others 'like me' and wished vehemently that someone could 'get them to see there is something the matter with them, but that it's something there's treatment for, that it can be cured'.1 This was a remarkable statement. Medical treatment to 'cure' offenders of their criminal conduct had been all but unheard of fifty years earlier, and sexual crime had certainly not merited any particular attention from doctors in England. By the time of Russell George's most recent