ABSTRACT
The fourth earl of Carnarvon was an aristocratic Whig of conservative leanings, who began to take an interest in penal reform in the 1850s. In response to a supposed outbreak of street robberies or ‘garottings’ in London, Carnarvon sponsored the Security from Violence Act, 1863, which gave courts the power to order an adult offender to be flogged three times within the first six months of his prison sentence. The subject of the increase of violent robberies found its way into the memorandum of dissent submitted by Sir Alexander Cockburn, the long-serving Lord Chief Justice, to the 1863 “Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Operation of the Acts relating to Transportation and Penal Servitude.” Cockburn rather discounted the importance of the increase of violent robberies, though he thought it shone a pale light on the inadequacies of the penal law.
