Reward

Reward, in a legal sense, means some encouragement which the law holds out for exertions in bringing certain classes of criminals to justice. By statute 7 Geo. IV. chap. 64, the courts of assize may order the sheriff of the county, in which certain offences have been committed, to pay to persons who have been active in securing the apprehension of offenders charged with murder, or with feloniously shooting, cutting, stabbing, wounding, or poisoning, or with rape, burglary, housebreaking, robbery, arson, or cattle-stealing, or with being accessory before the fact to any of such offences, or to receiving any stolen property, a reasonable sum to compensate them for expense, exertion, and loss of time. So by a later statute (14 and 15 Vict. chap. 55) courts of quarter sessions are authorised, in the case of any of the above offences which they have jurisdiction to try, to order such compensation; but the payment to one person must not exceed £5. If any one is killed in endeavouring to apprehend a person charged with one of these offences, the court may order compensation to be made to the family. The amount to be paid in all such cases is subject to regulations which may be made from time to time by the Secretary of State. By statute (24 and 25 Vict. chap. 96) it is a felony, punishable by penal servitude to the extent of seven years, to corruptly take any reward for helping a person to property stolen or embezzled, unless all due diligence to bring the offenders to trial has been used. In Britain an advertisement offering a reward for the return of stolen or lost property, using words purporting that no questions will be asked or inquiry made after the person producing the property, renders the advertiser, printer, and publisher liable to forfeit £50. For several years the offering of rewards by the government has in England been discontinued on grounds of public policy. For example, during the series of murders in Whitechapel in 1888-90, the Home Office, though urgently requested to offer a reward for the discovery of the criminal, steadily refused to do so.