Sexual Offenders

and

Social Punishment

Being the evidence submitted on behalf of the Church of England Moral Welfare Council to the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, with other material relating thereto.

Compiled and edited by

DERRICK SHERWIN BAILEY, Ph.D. Study Secretary, Church of England Moral Welfare Council.

The publication in 1954 of an interim report of a committee of the Church of England Moral Welfare Council on the problem of homosexuality made a deep impression on responsible public opinion in England; it may even have played some part in moving the then Home Secretary to appoint a departmental committee, under the chairmanship of Mr. J. F. Wolfenden, C.B.E. Though it was intended as no more than an interim report, and so was allowed to go out of print, enquiries received show that great interest in it continues.

In this new volume the substance of that Report has been amplified, and appendices have been added upon the moral and pastoral aspects of homosexuality.

Material on the following nine pages has been reproduced directly from the above named volume. It is reprinted here because significant comment appears in this particular appendex, and perhaps this comment will tend to affect thinking in America as it has in England.

EXTRACTS FROM THE INTERIM REPORT,

THE PROBLEM OF HOMOSEXUALITY

VARIATIONS IN THE HOMOSEXUAL PATTERN:

Since discussion of homosexuality is often confused by the use of vague or inaccurate language, we think it will be well first to define our terms. We are aware that there is a variety of technical usage among experts, and that others may prefer a different terminology, but we hope that the expressions used in this report will make for clarity of discussion.

It is most important to understand that homosexuality is not in any sense a kind of conduct. It is a term used to denote a condition in male or female characterized by direction of the sexual and emotional impulses towards others of the same (Gk. homos) sex. Such a condition is certainly due to psychological causes arising in adolescence and sometimes in early childhood (see page 105), and may in some cases perhaps also be innate. In serious cases, it is usually unalterable, either because a 'cure' is impossible in the nature of the case, or because the subject is psychologically inhibited from according that degree of co-operation with a psychiatrist which is necessary for successful treatment. Compulsive urges to carry the condition into overt acts may, however, be relieved by psychological or other medical treatment. The condition is itself morally neutral, but may (though it does not always) find expression in various homosexual acts upon which a moral judgment must be passed.

We shall refer to the person so conditioned as the invert; he is to be distinguished carefully from

(a) the so-called bisexual (or ambivalent) in whom there appears to be a sexual propensity indiscriminately directed towards the same and the opposite sex. Such a person may marry and have children, or may remain unmarried; but in either case there will be a capacity for homosexual as well as heterosexual physical expression. In those who seek such expression, homosexual and heterosexual experiences may occur as and when opportunity allows, following no obvious pattern; or homosexual and heterosexual phases of some duration may alternate. (We recognize the difference of opinion among experts as to the nature, the cause, and even the existence of the true bisexual, but the type we have described is sufficiently well attested by experience and case-history to warrant distinction from the genuine invert, and from the pervert.)

[1 On this section of the report, see the comments in the Evidence, pp. 27 f.)

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