The Report of the Commission of Inquiry ('Fitzgerald Report') drew attention to what other writers have described as the 'over-reach' of the criminal law. By this is meant the tendency for the law to intrude into areas which are more appropriately left to other forms of social control - morality, religion, education and the like.
The Report noted that where such extensions of the proper legal function occur, stresses and strains develop which have the effect of distorting the legal process. Having discovered the existence of such distortion, (in the form of corruption) especially in those parts of the law enforcement system connected with sexual behaviour and gambling, the Commission of Inquiry deduced that this situation might be a case in which the law was being forced to extend beyond the bounds of its effective operation - a case of 'over-reach'.
Accordingly, the Report recommended that this Commission should undertake a review of the relevant law - especially in relation to prostitution and 'SP bookmaking'. This report is the result of the Commission's investigation of prostitution.
This report was tabled in Parliament on 1 October 1991.
