Juvenile delinquency itself has been the subject of much research (especially in the United States) during the past fifty years.  But although such offences as indecent exposure and sexual assault by juniors have been included in published figures, no special mention has been found by this Committee of the aspect of sexual delinquency now being discussed in New Zealand.  What is entirely new in New Zealand (and probably in other places, too) is the attitude of mind of some young people to sexual indulgence with one another, their planning and organization of it, and their assumption that when they consent together they are not doing anything wrong.

Clergymen and publicists in various parts of the world have been declaiming about illicit sexual practices and their effects on young people, but this is the first time that any Government has set up a Committee to sift the available data on sexual misbehaviour with a view to finding the cause and suggesting a remedy.

While this report was being typed there appeared in the local newspapers the following telegram despatched from London on September 14: 

        INQUIRY INTO VICE WAVE IN BRITAIN

A Government committee, including three women, is to open tomorrow a searching probe into Britain’s homosexuals and prostitutes, to decide whether the country’s vice laws should be changed.

    The Government’s decision to set up the committee followed
    public alarm at the vice wave in Britain, highlighted by a steep
    increase in homosexual offences.

The Home Secretary, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, has charged the committee with considering the law and practice relating to homosexual offences and the treatment of persons convicted of such offences, and offences against the criminal law in connection with prostitution and solicitation for immoral purposes.  According to the police, prostitutes in London alone have soared to a record of more than 10,000.  Convictions for sexual offences exceed 5,000 a year, compared with the immediate pre-war total of 2,300.  The figures for male homosexual offences have bounded even more sharply.

The extent of juvenile immorality in New Zealand may have been greatly magnified abroad.  If the good name of this Dominion has been sullied by these reports, the Committee hopes that any damage may be repaired by setting out the facts in their true perspective and by demonstrating that we can, and will, do something in the interests of morality which may also give a lead to other countries.

II.  Order of Reference and Procedure Followed

On 23 July 1954 a Special Committee was appointed by the Government with the following Order of Reference: