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CRIME AND ITS CAUSES 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM DOUGLAS MORRISON 
 
 OF H. M. PRISON, WANDSWOKTH 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SWAN SONNE NSCHEIN & CO. 
 
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6 & 3 0-^ /^ 
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PREFACE. 
 
 This volume, as its title indicates, is occupied with an 
 examination of some of the principal causes- of crime, 
 and is designed as an introduction to the study of 
 criminal questions in general. In spite of all the 
 attention these questions have hitherto received and 
 are now receiving, crime still remains one of the most 
 perplexing and obstinate of social problems. It is 
 much more formidable than pauperism, and almost as 
 costly. A social system which has to try hundreds of) 
 thousands of offenders annually before the criminal 
 courts is in a very imperfect condition ; the causes 
 which lead to this state of things deserve careful 
 consideration from all who take an interest in social 
 welfare. 
 
 In the following pages I have endeavoured to show 
 that crime is a more complicated phenomenon than is 
 generally supposed. When society will be able to 
 stamp it out is a question it would be extremely hard 
 to answer. If it ever does so, it will not be the work of 
 one generation but of many, and it will not be effected 
 by the application of any single specific. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Punishment alone will never succeed in putting an 
 end to Clime. Punishment will and does hold crime 
 to a certain extent in check, but it will never trans- 
 form the delinquent population into honest citizens, 
 for the simple reason that it can only sti'ike at the 
 full-fledged criminal and not at the causes which have 
 made him so. Economic prosperity, however widely 
 j diffused, will not exting-uisli crime. Many people 
 imagine that all the evils afflicting society spring 
 from want, but this is only partially true. A small 
 i number of crimes are probably due to sheer lack of 
 food, but it has to be borne in mind that crime would 
 still remain an evil of enormous magnitude even if 
 there were no such calamities as destitution and dis- 
 tress. As a matter of fact easy circumstances have 
 less influence on conduct than is generally believed ; 
 prosperity generates criminal inclinations as well as 
 adversity, and on the whole the rich are just as much 
 addicted to crime as the poor. The progress of 
 civilisation will not destroy crime. Many savage 
 tribes living under the most primitive forms of social 
 life present a far more edifying spectacle of respect 
 for person and property than the most cultivated 
 [classes in Europe and America. All that civilisation 
 has hitherto done is to change the form in which 
 crime is perpetrated ; in substance it remains the 
 same. Primary Schools will not accomplish much in 
 eliminating crime. The merely intellectual trainincr 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 received in these institutions has little salutary in- 
 fluence upon conduct. Nothing can be more deplorable 
 than that sectarian bickerings, respecting infinitesimal 
 points in the sanctions of njorality, should result in 
 the children of" England receiving hardly any moral 
 instruction whatever. Conduct, as the late Mr. 
 Matthew Arnold has so often told us, is three fourths 
 of life. What are we to think of an educational 
 system which officially ignores this ; what have we to 
 hope in the way of improvement from a people which 
 consents to its being ignored ? 
 
 But even a course of systematic instruction in the 
 principles of conduct, no matter by what sanctions 
 these principles are inculcated, will not avail muchi 
 unless they are to some extent practised in the home. 
 And this will never be the case so long as women are 
 demoralised by the hard conditions of industrial life, 
 and unfitted for the duties of motherhood before 
 beginning to undertake them. 
 
 In addition to this, no State will ever get rid of the 
 criminal problem unless its population is composed of 
 healthy and vigorous citizens. Very often crime is 
 but the offspring of degeneracy and disease. A dis- 
 eased asnd degenerate population, no matter how 
 favourably circumstanced in other respects, will always' 
 produce a plentiful crop of criminals. Stunted and 
 decrepit faculties, whether physical or mental, either 
 vitiate the character, or unfit the combatant for the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 battle of life. In both cases the result is in general 
 the same, namely, a career of crime. 
 
 As to the best method of dealing with the actual 
 criminal, the first thing to be done is to know what 
 sort of a person you are dealing with. He must be 
 carefully studied at first hand. At present too much 
 attention is bestowed on theoretical discussions re- 
 specting the various kinds of crime and punishment, 
 while hardly any account is taken of the persons who 
 commit the crime and require the punishment. Yet 
 this is the most important point of all ; the other is 
 trivial in comparison with it. If crime is to be dealt 
 with in a rational manner and not on mere a •priori 
 grounds, our minds must be enlightened on such ques- 
 tions as the following : What is the Criminal ? What 
 are the chief causes which have made him such ? 
 How are these causes to be got rid of or neutralised ? 
 What is the effect of this or that kind of punishment ? 
 These are the momentous problems ; in comparison 
 ; with these, all fine-spun definitions respecting the 
 difference between one crime and another are mere 
 dust in the balance. There can be little doubt that a 
 neglect of those considerations on the part of many 
 magistrates and judges, is at the root of the capricious 
 sentences so often passed upon criminals. The effects 
 of this neglect result in the passing of sentences of too 
 great severity on first offenders and the young ; and 
 of too much leniency on hardened and habitual 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 criminals. Leniency, says Grotius, should be exercised 
 with discernment, otherwise it is not a virtue, but a 
 weakness and a scandal. 
 
 When imprisonment has to be resorted to, it must be 
 made a genuine punishment if it is to exercise any 
 effect as a deterrent. The moment a prison is made a! 
 comfortable place to live in, it becomes useless as a' 
 safeguard against the criminal classes. This is ai 
 fundamental principle. But punishment, although 
 an essential part of imprisonment, is not its only pur- j 
 pose. Imprisonment should also be a preparation for' 
 liberty. If a convicted man is as unfit for social life 
 at the expiration of his sentence as he was at the 
 commencement of it, the prison has only accomplished i 
 half its work ; it has satisfied the feeling of public [ 
 vengeance, but it has failed to transform the oflFender / 
 into a useful citizen. How to prepare the offender/ 
 for liberty is, I admit, a task of supreme difScnlty ; 
 in some cases, probably, an impossible task. For work 
 of this character what is wanted above all is an en- 
 lightened staff. Mere machines are useless ; men un- 
 acquainted with civil life and its conditions are useless. 
 It is from civil life the prisoner is taken ; it is to civil 
 life he has to return, and unless he is under the care/ 
 of men who have an intimate knowledge of civil life, > 
 he will not have the same prospect of being fitted into i 
 it when he has once more to face the world. 
 
 In the preparation of this volume I have carefully 
 
 I 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 examined the most recent ideas of English and Con- 
 tinental writers (especially the Italians) on the subject 
 of crime. The opinions it contains are based on an 
 experience of fourteen years in Orders most of which 
 have been spent in prison work. In revising the 
 proofs I have received valuable assistance from Mr. J. 
 Morrison. W. D. M. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. The Statistics of Crime - i 
 
 II. Climate and Crime - 23 
 
 III. The Seasons and Crime 61 
 
 IV. Destitution and Crime - 82 
 V. Poverty and Crime - - 128 
 
 VI. Sex, Age, and Crime 149 
 
 VII. The Criminal in Body and Mind 177 
 
 VIII. The Punishment of Crime 201 
 Appendices - - - - - 233 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE STATISTICS OF CRIME. 
 
 It is only within the present century, and in .some 
 countries it is only within the present generation, that 
 the possibility has arisen of conducting the study of 
 criminal problems on anything approaching an exact 
 and scientific basis. Before the introduction of a 
 system of criminal statistics — a step taken by most 
 peoples within the memory of men still living — it was 
 impossible for civilised communities to ascertain with 
 absolute accuracy whether crime was increasing or 
 decreasing, or what transformation it was passing 
 through in consequence of the social, political, and 
 economic changes constantly taking place in all highly 
 organised societies. It was also equally impossible to 
 appreciate the effect of punishment for good or evil 
 on the criminal population. Justice had little or no 
 data to go upon ; prisoners were sentenced in batches 
 to the gallows, to transportation, to the hulks, or to 
 the county gaol, but no inquiry was made as to the 
 
 h 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 result of these punishments on the criminal classes or 
 on the progress of crime. It was deemed sufficient to 
 catch and punish the offender ; the more offences 
 seemed to increase — tliere was no sure method of 
 knowing whether they did increase or not — the more 
 severe the punishment became. Justice worked in the 
 dark, and was surrounded by the terrors of darkness. 
 What followed is easy to imagine ; the criminal law 
 of England reached a pitch of unparalleled barbarity, 
 and within living memory laws were on the statute 
 book by which a man might be hanged for stealing 
 property' above the value of a shilling. 
 
 Had a fairly accurate system of crhninal statistics 
 existed, it is very likely that the data contained in 
 them would have reassured the nation and tempered 
 the severity of the law. 
 
 Of Criminal Statistics it may be said in the first 
 place, that they act as an annual register for tabu- 
 lating the amount of danger to which society is ex- 
 posed by the nefarious operations of lawless persons. 
 By these statistics we are informed of the number of 
 crimes committed during the course of the year so far 
 as they are reported to the police. We are informed 
 of the number of persons brought to trial for the 
 perpetration of these crimes ; of the nature of the 
 offences with which incriminated persons are charged, 
 and of the length of sentence imposed on those who 
 are sent to prison. The age, the degree of instruction, 
 
THE STA TISTICS OF CRIME. 
 
 and the occupations of prisoners are also tabulated. 
 A record is also kept of the, number of times a man 
 has been committed to prison, and of the manner in 
 which he has conducted himself while in confinement. 
 One important point must be mentioned on which 
 criminal statistics are almost entirely silent. The 
 great sources of crime are the personal, the social, and 
 the economic conditions of the individuals who com- 
 mit it. Criminal statistics, to be exiiaustive, ought to 
 include not only the amount of crime and the degrees 
 of punishment awarded to offenders ; tliese statistics 
 should also, as far as practicable, take cognisance of 
 the sources from which crime undoubtedly sprin^fs. 
 In this respect, our information, so far as it comes to 
 us through ordinary channels, is lamentably deficient. 
 It is confined to data respecting the age, sex, and 
 occupation of the offender. These data are very in- 
 teresting, and very useful, as affording a glimpse of 
 the sources from which the dark river of delinquency 
 takes its rise. But they are too meagre and frag- 
 mentary. Tliey require to be completed by the 
 personal and social history of the criminal. Crime is 
 not necessarily a disease, but it resembles disease 
 in this respect, that it will be impossible to wipe it out 
 till an accurate diagnosis has been made of the causes 
 which produce it. To punish crime is all very well ; 
 but punishment is not an absolute remedy; its de- 
 terrent action is limited, and other methods besides 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 punishment 'must be'adopted if society ^wishes to gain 
 the mastery over the criminal population. What 
 these methods should be can only be ascertained after 
 the most searching preliminary inquiries into the 
 main factors of crime. It ought, therefore, to be a 
 weighty part of the business of criminal statistics to 
 offer as full information as possible, not only respecting 
 crimes and punishments, but much more respecting 
 criminals. Every criminal has a life history ; that 
 history is very frequently the explanation of his 
 sinister career ; it ought, therefore, to be tabulated, so 
 that it may be seen how far his descent and his sur- 
 roundings have contributed to make him what he is. 
 In the case of children sent to Reformatory Schools, 
 the jDrevious history of the child is always tabulated. 
 Enquiries are made and registered respecting the 
 parents of the child ; what country they belong to, 
 what sort of character they beai-, whether they are 
 honest and sober, whether they have ever been in 
 prison, what wages they earn, and whether the child 
 is legitimate or not. A similar method to the one 
 adopted with Reformatory children ought to be in- 
 stituted, with suitable modifications, in European 
 prisons and convict establishments. It is, at the 
 present time, being advocated by almost all the most 
 eminent ci-iminal authorities,^aadmore than one scheme 
 has been drawn up- to show the scope of its operation. 
 ^ See Appendix I. 
 
THE STATISTICS OF CRIlMF. 
 
 to 
 
 In addition to the service which a complete personal 
 and family record of convicted prisoners would render 
 as to the causes of crime, such a record would be of 
 immense advantage to the judges. At the' present 
 time a judge is only made acquainted with the pre- 
 vious convictions of a prisoner; he knows nothing 
 more about him except through the evidence which is 
 sometimes adduced as to character. An accurate 
 record of the prisoner's past would enable the judge to 
 see at once with what sort of offender he was dealing, 
 and might, perhaps, help to put a stop to the unequal 
 and ca])vicious sentences which, not infrequently, dis- 
 grace the name of justice.^ 
 
 Passing from this point, we shall now inquire into 
 the possibility of establishing some system of Inter- 
 national Statistics, whereby the volume of crime in 
 one country may be compared with the volume of 
 crime in another. At the present time it is extremely 
 difficult to institute any such comparison, and it is 
 questionable if it can ever be properly done. In no 
 two countries is the criminal law the same, and an 
 act which is perfectly harmless when committed in 
 one part of Europe, is considered in another as a con- 
 travention of the law. Each country has also a 
 
 ^ In his interesting work, "Die Beziehungen zwisohon Geis- 
 tesstorung unci Verbreohon," Dr. Sander sliows tlrat out of a 
 hundred insane pers<jns brought up for trial, tlie judges only 
 discovered the mental state of from twenty-six to twenty-eight 
 per cent, of them. 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 nomenclature of crime and methods of criminal 
 procedure peculiar to itself. In each country the 
 police are organised on a different principle, and act 
 in the execution of their duty on a different code of rules. 
 In all cases, for instance, of mendicancy, drunkenness, 
 brawling, and disorder, the initiative rests practically 
 with the police, and it depends almost entirely on the 
 instructions issued to the police whether such offences 
 shall figure largely or not in the statistics of crime. 
 A proof of this fact may be seen in the Report of the 
 Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, for the 
 year 1888. In the year 188G, the number of persons 
 convicted in the Metropolis of " Annoying male 
 persons for the purpose of prostitution " was 3,233 ; in 
 ISSS, the number Avas only 1,475. This enormous 
 decrease in the course of two years is not due to a 
 diminution of the offence, but to a change in the 
 attitude of the police. Again, in the year 1887, the 
 Metropolitan police arrested 4,556 persons under the 
 provisions of the Vagrant and Poor Law Acts ; but in 
 the year 1888, the number arrested by the same body 
 under th_e same acts amounted to 7,052. It is perfectly 
 obvious" that;/this vast increase of apprehensions was 
 not owing to a corresponding increase in the number 
 of rogues, beggars, and vagrants; it was principally 
 owing to the increased stringency with which the 
 Metropolitan police carried out the provisions of the 
 Vagrant and Poor Law Acts. An absolute proof of 
 
THE STATISTICS OF CRIME. ^ 
 
 the correctness of this statement is the fact that 
 throughout the Avholo of EngkncI there was a decrease 
 in the number of persons proceeded against in accor- 
 dance with tliese acts. Tliese examples will suffice 
 to show what an immense power the police have in 
 regulating the volume of certain classes of offences. 
 In some countries thoy are called upon to exercise 
 this power in the direction of stringency ; in other 
 countries it is exercised in the direction of leniency; and 
 in the same country its exercise, as we have just seen, 
 varies according to the views of whoever, for tlie time 
 being, happens to have a voice in controlling the 
 action of the police. In these circumstances it is 
 obviously impossible to draw any accurate compari- 
 son between the lighter kinds of offences in one 
 country and the same class of offences in another. 
 
 In the case of the more -serious offences against 
 person and property, the initiative of putting the law 
 in motion rests chiefly with the injured individual. 
 The action of the individual in this respect depends 
 to a large extent on the customs of the country. In 
 some countries the injured person, instead of putting 
 the law in motion against an offender, takes tlie matter 
 in his own hand^, and administers the wild justice of 
 revenge. Great differences of opinion also exist 
 among different nations as to the gravity of certain 
 offences. Among some peoples there is a far greater 
 reluctance than there is among others to appeal to the 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 law. Murder is perhaps tlie only crime on wliicli there 
 exists a fair consensus of opinion among civilised com- 
 munities ; and even with regard to this offence it is 
 impossible to overcome all the judicial and statistical 
 difficulties which stand in the way of an international 
 comparison. 
 
 In spite, however, of the fact that the amount of 
 crime committed in civilised countries cannot be sub- 
 jected to exact comparison, there are various points 
 on which the international statistics of crime are able 
 to render valuable service. It is important, for in- 
 stance, to see in what relation crime in different com- 
 munities stands to age, sex, climate, temperature, race, 
 education, religion, occui)ation, home and social sur- 
 i-Qundings. If we find, for example, an abnormal 
 development of crime taking place in a given country 
 at a certain period of life, or in certain social circum- 
 stances, and if we do not discover the same abnormal 
 development taking place in other countries at a 
 similar period of life, or in a similar social stratum, wo 
 ought at once to come to the conclusion that there is 
 some extraordinary cause at work peculiar to the 
 country which is producing an unusually high total of 
 crime. If, on the other hand, we find that certain 
 kinds of crime are increasing or decreasing in all 
 countries at the same time, we may be perfectly sure 
 that the increase or decrease is brought about by the 
 same set of causes. And whether those caiises are 
 
THE STATISTICS OF CRIME. 
 
 war, political luovements, commercial prosperity, or de- 
 pression, the community which first escapes from them 
 Avill also be the first to show it in tlie annual statistics 
 of crime. In these and many other ways international 
 statistics are of the greatest utility. 
 
 From what has already been said as to the immense 
 difficulty of comparing the criminal statistics of 
 various countries, it follows as a matter of course that 
 the figures contained in them cannot be used as a 
 means of ascertaining the position which belongs to 
 each nation respectively in the scale of morality. 
 Nor is the moral progress of a nation to be measured 
 solely by an apparent decay of crime. On the con- 
 trary, an increase in the amount of crime may be the 
 direct result of a moral advance in the average senti- 
 n'.ents of the community. The passing of the Elemen- 
 tary Education Act of 1S70 and of the Criminal Law 
 Amendment Act of 1885 have added considerably to 
 the number of persons brought before the criminal 
 courts and eventually committed to prison. But an 
 increase of the prison population due to these causes 
 is no proof that the country is deteriorating morally. 
 It will be regarded by many persons as a proof that 
 the country has improved, for it is now demanding a 
 higher standard of conduct from the ordinary citizen 
 than it demanded twenty years ago.^ 
 
 1 Before the passing of the Elementary Education Act, no one 
 was tried for not sending his child to school ; it was not a legal 
 
10 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 On the other hand, a decrease in the oflicial statis- 
 tics of crime may be a proof that the moral sentiments 
 of a nation are degenerating. It may be a proof that 
 the laws are ceasing to be an effective protection to 
 the citizen, and that society is falling a victim to the 
 forces of anarchy and crime. It is, therefore, impos- 
 sible by looking only at the bare figures contained in 
 criminal statistics, to say whether a community is 
 growing better or worse. Before any conclusions can 
 be formed on these matters, either one way er the 
 other, we must go behind the figures, and look at them 
 in the light of the social, political and industrial de- 
 velopments taking place in the society to which these 
 figures refer. 
 
 In this connection, it may not be amiss to point out 
 that tiie present tendency of legislation is bound to 
 produce more crime. All law is by its nature coercive, 
 but so long as the coercion is confined witliin a 
 limited area, or can only come into operation at rare 
 intervals, it produces comparatively little effect on 
 the whole volume of crime. When, ho-wever, a law is 
 passed affecting every member of the community 
 every day of his life, such a law is certain to increase 
 the population of our gaols. A marked characteristic 
 of the present time i.s, that legislative assemblies are 
 becoming more and more inclined to pass such laws ; 
 
 oil'csnoe ; in 1888-9 no less th;m 80,519 persons were triedunder 
 this Act, in England and Wales. 
 
THE STATISTICS OF CHIME. 
 
 SO lon^ as this is the case it is vain to hope for a de- 
 crease in the annual amount of crime. Whether these 
 new coercive laws are beneficial or the x'everse is a 
 matter which it does not at this moment concern me 
 to discuss ; wliat I am anxious to point out is, that 
 the more they are multiplied, the greater will be the 
 number of persons annually committed to prison. In 
 initiating legislation of a far-reaching coercive char- 
 acter, politicians should remember far more than they 
 do at present that the effect of these Acts of Par- 
 liament will be to fill the gaols, and to put the prison 
 taint upon a greater number of the population. This 
 is a responsibility which no body of men ought lightly 
 to incur, and in considering the advantages to be de- 
 rived from some new legislative enactment, an equal 
 amount of consideration should be bestowed upon the 
 fact, that the new enactment will also be the means of 
 providing a fresh recruiting ground for the permanent 
 army of crime. 
 
 A man, for instance, goes to prison for contravening 
 some municipal bye-law ; he comes out of it the 
 friend and associate of habitual criminals ; and the 
 ultimate result of the bj^e-law is to transform a com- 
 paratively harmless member of society into a danger- 
 ous thief or house-breaker. One person of this char- 
 acter is a greater menace to society than a hundred 
 offenders against municipal regulations, and the present 
 system of law-making undoubtedly helps to multiply 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 this class of men. One of the leading principles of all 
 wise legislation should be to keep the population out 
 of eaol ; but the direct result of many recent enact- 
 ments, both in this country and abroad, is to drive them 
 into it ; and it may be taken as an axiom that the more 
 the functions of Government are extended, the greater 
 will be the amount of crime. 
 
 These remarks lead me to approach the question of 
 what is called " the movement " of crime. Is its total 
 volume increasing or decreasing in the principal 
 civilised countries of the world ? On this point there 
 is some diversity of view, but most of the principal 
 authorities in Europe and America are emphatically of 
 opinion that crime is on the increase. In the United 
 States, we are told by Mr. D. A. Welis,i and by Mr. 
 Howard Wines, an eminent specialist in criminal 
 matters, that crime is steadily increasing, and it is 
 increasing faster than the growth of the population. 
 
 Nearly all the chief statisticians abroad tell the same 
 tale with respect to the growth of crime on the Con- 
 tinent. Dr. Mischler of Vienna, and Professor von 
 Liszt of Marburg draw a deplorable picture of the 
 increase of crime in Germany. Professor von Liszt, 
 in a recent article,^ says, that fifteen million persons 
 have been convicted by the German criminal courts 
 within the last ten years ; and, according to him, the 
 
 ^ llccent Ecoiwiaic CIudkjcs, p. 345. 
 
 - Z(;itsdu'ift fiir cUe~gesamte Strafrechtswisseii«c]i(ift ix. 472, sg. 
 
THE STATISTICS OF CRIME. 13 
 
 outlook for the future is sombre in the last degree. 
 In France, the criminal problem is just as formidable 
 and perplexing as it is in Germany ; M. Henri Joly 
 estimates that crime lias increased in the former 
 country 133 per cent, within the last half century, and 
 is still steadily rising. Taking Victoria as a typical 
 Australasian colony, we find that even in the Antipodes, 
 which are not vexed to the same extent as Europe 
 with social and economic difficulties, crime is persis- 
 tently raising its head, and although it does not in- 
 crease quite as rapidly as the population, it is never- 
 theless a more menacing danger among the Victorian 
 colonists than it is at home.^ 
 
 Is England an exception to the rest of the world 
 with respect to crime ? Many people are of opinion 
 that it is, and the idea is at present diligently fostered 
 on the platform and in the press that we have at last 
 found out the secret of dealing successfully with the 
 criminal population. As far as I can ascertain, this 
 belief is based upon the statement that the daily 
 average of persons in prison is constantly going down. 
 Inasmuch, as there was a daily average of over 
 20,000 persons in prison in 1878, and a daily aver- 
 age of about 15,000 in 1888, many people immediately 
 jump at the conclusion that crime is diminishing. 
 But the daily average is no criterion whatever of the 
 rise and fall of crime. Calculated on the principle of 
 ^ See Statistical Register for Victoria, Part riii. 
 
14 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES, 
 
 daily average, t^Yelve men sentenced to prison for one 
 month each, will not figure so largely in criminal 
 statistics as one man sentenced to a term of eighteen 
 months. The daily average, in other words, depends 
 upon the length of sentence prisoners receive, and not 
 upon the number of persons committed to prison, or 
 upon the number of crimes committed during the 
 j'ear. Let us look then at the number of persons com- 
 mitted to Local Prisons, and we shall be in a position 
 to judge if crime is decreasing in England or not. We 
 shall go back twenty years and take the quinquennial 
 totals as they are recorded in the judicial statistics : — 
 
 Total of the 5 years, 1868 to 1872, 7T4,CG7. 
 Total of the 5 years, 1873 to 1877, 866,041. 
 Total of the 5 years, 1884 to 1888, 898,486. 
 
 If statistics are to be allowed any weight at all, these 
 figures incontestably mean that the total volume of 
 crime is on the increase in England as well as every- 
 where else. It is fallacious to suppose that the autho- 
 rities here are gaining the mastery over the delinquent 
 population. Such a supposition is at once refuted by 
 the statistics which have just been tabulated, and 
 these are the only statistics which can be implicitly 
 relied upon for testing the position of the country 
 with regard to crime. 
 
 Seeing, then, that the total amount of crime is re- 
 gularly growing, how is the decrease in the daily 
 average of persons in prison to be accounted for? 
 
THE STATISTICS OF CRIME. IS 
 
 This decrease may be accounted for in two ways. It 
 may be shown that although the number of people 
 committed to prison is on the increase, the nature of 
 the offences for which these people are convicted is 
 not so grave. Or, in the second place, it may be 
 shown that, although the crimes committed now are 
 equally serious with those committed twenty years 
 ago, the magistrates and judges are adopting a more 
 lenient line of action, and are inflicting shorter sen- 
 tences after a conviction. Let us for a moment con- 
 sider the proposition that crime is not so grave now 
 as it was twenty years ago. In order to arrive at a 
 fairly accurate conclusion on this matter, we have 
 only to look at the number of offences of a serious 
 nature reported to the police. Comparing the number 
 of cases of murder, attempts to murder, manslaughter, 
 shooting at, stabbing and wounding, and adding to 
 these offences the crimes of burglary, housebreaking, 
 robbery, and arson — comparing all these cases reported 
 to the police for the five years 1870-1874, with offences 
 of a like character reported in the five years 1884-1888, 
 we find that the proportion of grave offences to the 
 population was, in many cases, as great in the latter 
 period as in the former. ^ 
 
 1 Seeioits Cases reported to the Police in propobtion to the 
 Population. Annual Average for Five Years : — 
 
 Murder. Attempts to Murder, Manslaughter 
 
 1870-74 1 to 196,940 1 to 441,158 1 to 92,756 
 1884-88 1 to 168,897 1 to 418,923 1 to 116,403 
 
l6 CRIME AND ITS C.4 USES. 
 
 This shows clearly that crime, while it is increasing in 
 extent, is not mcaterially decreasing in seriousness ; and 
 the chief reason tlie prison population exhibits a 
 smaller daily average is to be found in the fact that 
 judges are now pronouncing shorter sentences than 
 was the custom twenty years ago. We are not left 
 in the dark upon this point; the judges themselves 
 frequently inform the public that they have taken to 
 shortening the terms of imprisonment. The extent to 
 which sentences have been shortened within the last 
 twenty years can easily be ascertained by compainng 
 the committals to prison and the daily average of the 
 quinquenniad 1SG8-72 with the committals and the 
 daily average of the quinquenniad 1884-88. A com- 
 parison between these two periods shows that the 
 length of imprisonment has decreased twenty-six per 
 cent. In other words, whereas a man used to receive 
 a sentence of twelve months' imprisonment, he now 
 receives a sentence of nine months ; and whereas he 
 used to get a sentence of one month, he now gets 
 
 Shooting, Stabbing, &o. Burglary. Housebrealting. 
 
 1870-74 Ito .35,033 1 to 10.188 1 to 17,538 
 
 1884-88 Ito 38,607 Ito 7,892 Ito 11,911 
 
 Eobbery. Arson. 
 
 1870-74 Ito 43,247 Ito 54,075 
 
 1884-88 Ito 70,767 Ito 77,018 
 
 This table shows that since 1870-74 there has been an increase 
 in murder, attempts to murder, burglary, and housebreaking, 
 and a decrease in manslaughter, robbery, and arson. The de- 
 crease in shooting,- stabbing, wounding, &o., is very small. (Cf. 
 Jw.Uckd Stattdics for 18?4 and 1888, p. xvi.) 
 
THE STATISTICS OF CRIME. 17 
 
 twenty-one clays. If it be a serious offence, or if the 
 criminal be a habitual offender, he now receives eigh- 
 teen months' imprisonment, whereas he used to receive 
 five years' penal servitude. As far as most judges 
 and stipendiary magistrates are concerned, sentences 
 of imprisonment have decreased in recent years more 
 than twenty-six per cent. ; and if there was a corres- 
 ponding movement on the part of Chairmen of Quarter 
 Sessions, the average decrease in the length of sen- 
 tences would amount to fifty per cent. But it is a 
 notorious fact that amateur judges are, with few ex- 
 ceptions, more inclined to pronounce heavy sentences 
 than professional men. 
 
 We have now arrived at the conclusion that crime 
 is just as serious in its character as it was twenty 
 years ago, and that it is growing in dimensions year 
 by year ; the next point to be considered is, the rela- 
 tion in which crime stands to the population. Crime 
 may be increasing, but the population may be multi- 
 plying faster than the growth of crime. Is this the 
 condition of things in England at the present day ? 
 We have seen that the criminal classes are increasing 
 much faster than the growth of population in France 
 and the United States. Is England in a better posi- 
 tion in this respect than these two countries ? At the 
 present time there is one conviction to about every 
 fifty inhabitants, and the proportion of convictions to 
 the population was very much the same twenty years 
 
iS CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 ago. If M-e remciiiber the immense development that 
 has taken place in the industrial school system within 
 the last twenty years — a development that has un- 
 doubtedly had a great deal to do with keeping down 
 crime — we arrive at the conclusion that, notwith- 
 standing the beneficent effects of Industrial Schools, 
 the criminal classes in this country still keep pace with 
 the annual growth of population. If we had no In- 
 dustrial and Reformatory institutions for the detention 
 of criminal and quasi-criminal offenders among the 
 young, there can be no doubt that England, as well as 
 other countries, would have to make the lamentable ad- 
 mission that crime was not only increasing in her midst, 
 but that it was increasing faster than the growth of 
 population. The number of juveniles in these insti- 
 tutions has more than trebled since 1868,^ and it is 
 unquestionable that if these youthful offenders were 
 not confined there, a large proportion of them would 
 immediately begin to swell the ranks of crime. That 
 crime in England is not making more rapid strides 
 than the growth of population, is almost entirely to be 
 attributed to the action of these schools. 
 
 We shall now look at another aspect of the criminal 
 question, and that is its cost. Crime is not merely a 
 danger to the community ; it is likewise a vast ex- 
 pense ; and there is no country in Europe where it 
 does not constitute a tremendous drain upon the ' 
 ^ r;ee Appendix II. 
 
THE STATISTICS OF CRIME. 19 
 
 national resources. Owing to the federal system of 
 government in America, it is almost impossible to 
 estimate how much is spent in the prevention and 
 punishment of crime in the United States, but Mr. 
 Wines calculates that the police force alone costs the 
 country fifteen million dollars annually.^ In the 
 United Kingdom the cost of criminal justice and 'ad- 
 ministration is continually on the increase, and it has 
 ■ never been so high as it is at the present time. In 
 the Estimates for the year 1891 the cost of Prisons 
 and of the Asylum for criminal lunatics falls little 
 short of a million sterling. Eeformatory and Indus- 
 trial Schools for juvenile offenders cost considerably 
 over half-a-million, and the expenditure on the Police 
 force is over five and a half millions annually. Add 
 to these figures the cost of criminal prosecutions, the 
 salaries of stipendiary and other paid magistrates, a 
 portioil of the salaries of judges, and all other expenses 
 connected with the trial and prosecution of delinquents, 
 and an annual total of expenditure is reached for the 
 United Kingdom of more tlian seven and a half 
 millions sterling. In addition to this enormous sum, 
 it has also to be remembered that a great loss of pro- 
 perty is annually entailed on the inhabitants of the 
 three kingdoms by the depredations of the criminal 
 classes. The exact amount of this loss it is impossible to 
 estimate, but, according to the figures in the police re- 
 ^ American Prisons, 1888. 
 
CRIME AND ITS CA USES. 
 
 ports, it cannot fall short of a million sterling per 
 annum. 
 
 These formidable figures aff'ord ample food for 
 reflection. Apart from its danger to the community, 
 the annual loss of money wliich the existence of crime 
 entails is a most serious consideration. It is equal to 
 a tenth of the national expenditure, and every few 
 years amounts to as much as the cost of a big 
 European war. It is tempting to speculate orT' the 
 admirable uses to which the capital consumed by 
 crime might be devoted, if it were free for beneficent 
 purposes. How easy it would be for many a scheme, 
 which is now in the region of dreamland, to bo 
 immediately realised. Unhappily, it is almost as vain 
 to look forward to the abolition of crime as it is to 
 look forward to the cessation of war. At the present 
 moment the latter event, however improbable, is more 
 likely to happen than the former. War has ceased to 
 be a normal condition of things in the comity of 
 nations ; it has become a transitory incident ; but 
 crime, which means war within the nation, is still far 
 from being a passing incident; on the contrary, a con- 
 flict between the forces of moral order and social 
 anarchy is going on continually ; and, at present, 
 there is not the faintest prospect of its coming to an 
 end 
 
 What is the cause of this state of warfare within 
 society ? Which of the combatants is to blame ? Or 
 
THE STATISTICS OF CRIME. 
 
 is the blame to be laid equally on the shoulders of 
 both ? In other words, are the conditions in which 
 men live together in society of such a nature that 
 crime is certain to flow from tliem ; and is crime 
 simply a reaction against the iniquity of existing 
 social arrangements ? Or, on the other hand, does 
 crime spring from the individual and his cosmical 
 surroundings ; and is it the product of forces over 
 which society has little or no control ? These ai-e 
 questions which cannot be answered oflF-hand, they 
 involve considerations of a most complicated character, 
 and it is only after a careful examination of all the 
 factors responsible for crime that a true solution can 
 possibly be arrived at. These factors are divisible 
 into three great categories — cosmical, social, and indi- 
 vidual.'^ The cosmical factors of crime are clima.te 
 and the variations of temperature ; the social factors 
 are the political, economic and moral conditions in the 
 midst of which man lives as a member of society ; the 
 individual factors are a class of attributes inherent in 
 the individual, such as descent, sex, age, bodily and 
 mental characteristics. These factors, it will be seen, 
 can easily be reduced to two, the organism and its 
 environment ; but it will be more convenient to con- 
 sider them under the three -fold division which has 
 just been mentioned. Before proceeding to do so, it 
 
 J- Of. E. Ferri. I Niiovi OrhrMnti del Diritto e clella 
 Procedura Penale. 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 may be as well to remark that in each case the several 
 factors operate with different degrees of intensity. It 
 is often extremely difScult to disentangle them ; and 
 the more complex the society is in which a crime 
 takes place, the greater is the combination and intri- 
 cacy of the causes leading up to it. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CLIMATE AND CRIME. 
 
 Man's existence depends upon physical surroundings ; 
 these surroundings have exercised an immense in- 
 fluence in modifying liis organism, in shaping his social 
 development, in moulding his character. To enumer- 
 ate all the external factors operating upon individual 
 and social life is outside our present purpose, but they 
 may be briefly summed up as climate, moisture, soil, 
 the configuration of the earth's surface, and the nature 
 of its products. These natural phenomena, either 
 singly or in varying degrees of combination, have un- 
 questionably played a most prominent part in making 
 the different races of mankind what they at present 
 are. We have only to look at the low type of life 
 exhibited by the primitive inhabitants of certain in- 
 hospitable regions of the globe to see how profoundly 
 the physical structure of man is affected by his 
 natural surroundings. Even a comparatively slight 
 difference of environment is not without effect upon 
 the population subjected to its influence. According 
 to M. de Quatrefages, the bodily structure of the 
 
 23 
 
24 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 English race has been distinctly modified by residence 
 in the United States of America. It is not more than 
 two and a half centuries since Englishmen began to 
 emigrate in any considerable numbers to the American 
 Continent, but in that comparatively short period the 
 Anglo-American has ceased to resemble his ancestors 
 in physical appearance. Alterations have taken place 
 in the skin, the hair, the neck, and the head ; the 
 lower jaw has become bigger ; the bones of the arms 
 and legs have lengthened, and the American of to-day 
 requires a different kind of glove from the English- 
 man. Structural changes of a similar character Iiave 
 taken place in the negroes transplanted to America. 
 M. Elisde Reclus considers that in a century and a 
 half they have traversed a good quarter of the 
 distance which separates them from the whites. An- 
 other important point, as showing the influence of 
 habitat upon race, is the fact that the modifications of 
 human structure resulting from residence in America 
 are in the direction of assimilating the European type 
 to that of the red man.' In short, it may be taken as 
 a well-established principle that external nature 
 destroys all organisms that cannot adapt themselves 
 to its action, and physiologically modifies all organ- 
 isms that can. 
 
 The social condition of mankind is also profoundly 
 
 1 The various tyi^es of Jews also afford a striking instance of 
 the effect of natural surroundings on bodily struotiire. 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 25 
 
 affected by climatic and other external circumstances. 
 The intense cold of the Arctic and Antarctic regions 
 is fatal to anything approaching a developed form of 
 civilisation. Intense heat, on the other hand, although 
 not incompatible with a certain degree of progress, is 
 unfavourable to its permanence;^ the extinct societies 
 of the tropics, such as Cambodia, Mexico and Peru, 
 affording instances of the operation of this law. It is 
 impossible for man to get beyond the nomad state in 
 the vast deserts of Northern Africa ; and the extreme 
 moisture of the atmosphere in other portions of the 
 same continent puts an effectual check on anything 
 like social advance. In some parts of the world 
 social development has been hindered by external 
 circumstances of another character, such as the want 
 of wood, the scarcity of animals, the absence of edible 
 fruits. In fact, it is only within a comparatively 
 temperate zone that human society has been able per- 
 manently to assume highly complex forms and to 
 build itself up on an extensive scale. In this zone, 
 climate, while favouring man up to a certain point, 
 has at the same time compelled him to eat bread in 
 the sweat of his brow. It has compelled him to enter 
 into conflict with natural obstacles, the result of which 
 has been to call forth his powers of industry, of energy, 
 of self-reliance, and to sharpen his intellectual faculties 
 generally. In addition to exercising and strengthen- 
 1 Ratzel. Volkerkunde, i. 20. 
 
26 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 ing these personal attributes, the climatic influences of 
 what has been called the zone of civilisation have 
 brought man's social characteristics more fully and 
 elaborately into play. The nature of these influences 
 has forced him to co-operate more or less closely with 
 his fellows; while each step in the path of co-operation 
 has involved him in another of a more complex kind. 
 The growth of social co-operation is not necessarily 
 accompanied by a corresponding development of the 
 moral sentiments; increased co-operation in some cases 
 involving a distinct ethical loss. In many directions, 
 however, highly organised societies tend to evolve 
 loftier types of morality ; and it is in harmony with 
 the facts to say that the highest moral types are not 
 to be found where nature does most or where it does 
 least in the way of providing food and shelter for 
 man. 
 
 It is also interesting to observe the effect which 
 climate, through the agency of religion, has had upon 
 human conduct. One of the main factors in the 
 origin of religion is the feeling of dependence upon 
 nature so strongly manifested in all primitive forms 
 of faith. The outcome of this feeling of dependence 
 was to exalt the forces of nature into divinities, and 
 man's conception of these divinities, shaped as it was 
 by the attitude of nature around him, had an incal- 
 culable influence on his life and actions. The re- 
 mains of this influence are still visible in the ossthctic 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 27 
 
 effects which the forces and operations of nature pro- 
 duce on civihsed man ; in all other respects it has to 
 a large extent passed away.^ 
 
 We have now touched upon most of the ways in 
 which external surroundings have had a hand in 
 shaping the course of human life in the past ; it will 
 be our next business to inquire whether these sur- 
 roundings have any effect upon human conduct at the 
 present day, and especially upon those manifestations 
 of conduct which are known as crimes. That they 
 still have an effect is an opinion which has long been 
 entertained. 
 
 Going back to the ancient Greeks, we find Hippo- 
 crates holding tliat all regions liable to violent changes 
 of climate produced men of fierce, impetuous and stub- 
 born disposition. "In approaching southern countries," 
 says Montesquieu, "one would believe that morality 
 was being left behind ; more ardent passions multiply 
 crimes ; each tries to gain from other's all the advan- 
 tages which can minister to these passions." Buckle 
 believes that the interruption of work caused by 
 instability of climate leads to instability of character. 
 In analysing the contents of French statistics, Quetelet,^ 
 while admitting that other causes may neutralise the 
 action of climate, proceeds to say that the " number of 
 
 ^ Darwin says that in elaborating his theory of Natural 
 Selection he attributed too little to external surroundings. 
 lAfe, and Letters. 
 
 - Physique Sociale, ii. 282. 
 
28 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 crimes against property relatively to the number of 
 crimes against the person increases considera,bly as we 
 advance towards the north." Another eminent student 
 of French criminal statistics, M. Tarde, comes to very 
 much the same conclusions as Quetelet ; he admits 
 that a high temperature does exercise an indirect in- 
 fluence on the criminal passions. But the most 
 exhaustive investigations in this problem have been 
 undertaken in Ttaly, by Signor Enrico Ferri. After a 
 thorough examination of French judicial statistics for 
 a series of j^ears, Ferri arrives at the conclusion that a 
 maximum of crimes against the person is reached in 
 the hot months, while, on the other hand, crim s 
 against property come to a climax in the winter.^ 
 
 In testing these opinions respecting the influence of 
 climate upon crime, we are obliged, to some extent, to 
 have recourse to international statistics. But these 
 statistics, as has already been pointed out, owing to 
 the diversity of customs, laws, criminal procedure, and 
 so on, do not easily admit of comparison. So much is 
 this the case-that we shall not make the attempt as 
 far as these statistics have reference to crimes against 
 property. In this field no satisfactory result can, at 
 present,be obtained. The same remark holds good in re- 
 lation to all offences against the person, with the excep- 
 tion of homicide. This, undoubtedly,' is an important 
 exception ; and it arises from the fact that there is a 
 ^ Zeitschrift fiir Strafrechtswissenschaft, ii., 485, 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 29 
 
 greater consensus of opinion among civilised com- 
 munities respecting the gravity of homicide than 
 exists with regard to any other form of crime. 
 Murder in all its degrees is a crime which immediately 
 causes a profound commotion ; it is easy to recognise ; 
 it is more likely than any other offence to come to the* 
 ears of the authorities. For these reasons this crime 
 lends itself most readily to international comparison ; 
 nevertheless, differences of judicial procedure, legal 
 nomenclature, and different methods of classification 
 stand in the way of making the comparison absolutely 
 accurate. These differences, however, are not so great 
 as to render comparison impossible or worthless ; on 
 the contrary, the results of such a comparison are of 
 exceptional value, and go a long way to determine the 
 question of the effect of climate upon crimes of blood. 
 Assuming, then, with these reservations, that such 
 a comparison can be instituted, let us see to what ex- 
 tent murder, in the widest sense of the word, includ- 
 ing wilful murder, manslaughter, and infanticide, 
 prevails in the various countries of Europe. In 
 ordinary circumstances this task would be a laborious 
 one, entailino' a minute and careful examination of the 
 criminal statistics and procedure of many nations. 
 Fortunately, it has recently been accomplished by Dr. 
 Bosco in an admirable monograph communicated in 
 the first instance to the Journal of the International 
 Statistical Institute, but now published in a separate 
 
30 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 form. Boseo's figures have all been taken from official 
 sources, and may, therefore, be accepted as accurate ; 
 but, before tabulating them, it may be useful to make 
 an extract from tlie explanatory note by which they 
 are accompanied. " As the composition of the popula- 
 tion, with respect to age, varies in different countries, 
 and as it has to be remembered that all the population 
 under ten years of age has no share, at least under 
 normal conditions, in the crime of murder, it has 
 seemed to me a more exact method to calculate the 
 proportion of murders to the inhabitants who are 
 over ten years of age, than to include the total popula- 
 tion. For those States where a census has been 
 recently taken, such, for instance, as France and 
 Germany, the results of that census have been used ; 
 that is to say, the French census of May, 18SG, and 
 the German census of December, 1885. For the other 
 States the population has been calculated (adding the 
 excess of births over deaths to the results of the last 
 census) to the end of the intermediate year for each 
 ]ieriod of years to which the information relates ; that 
 is to say, to the end of 1883 for Belgium, and to the 
 end of 1884 for Austria, Hungary, Spain, England, 
 Scotland and Ireland. As the information respecting 
 Italy refers to 1887 only, the population has been 
 estimated up to the end of that year. The division 
 of the population according to age (above and below 
 ten) has been obtained by means of proportional cal- 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 
 
 31 
 
 culations based on the results of the census for each 
 State. In the case of France and Germany, however, 
 it lias been taken directly from the census returns."^ 
 
 Homicides of all kinds in the following European 
 States : — 
 
 
 Population 
 
 
 Tried. 
 
 Convicted. 
 
 
 Annual 
 
 Per 
 
 Annual 
 
 Per 
 
 
 Countries. 
 
 over ten. 
 
 Yea', s. 
 
 
 100,000 
 
 
 100,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 average 
 
 inhabitants. 
 
 average 
 
 inhabitants. 
 
 
 Italy 
 
 23,408,277 
 
 1887 
 
 3,006 
 
 15-40 
 
 2,805 
 
 11-98 
 
 1 
 
 Austria 
 
 17,199,237|1883-0 
 
 689 
 
 4-01 
 
 499 
 
 2-90 
 
 H 
 
 Fi'cance 
 
 31,044,370,1882-(i 
 
 847 
 
 2-73 
 
 580 
 
 1-87 
 
 I 
 
 Belgium 
 
 4,377,8131881-5 
 
 132 
 
 3 02 
 
 101 
 
 2-31 
 
 i 
 
 Ens^land 
 
 10,898,0.531882-r, 
 
 318 
 
 1-60 
 
 151 
 
 0-76 
 
 /" 
 
 Ireland 
 
 3,854,588!l882-G 
 
 129 
 
 3-35 
 
 54 
 
 1-40 
 
 7 
 
 Scotland 
 
 2,841,94l!l882-C 
 
 00 
 
 2-11 
 
 21 
 
 0-74 
 
 ii 
 
 Spain 
 
 13,300,889'1883-C 
 
 1,584 
 
 11-91 
 
 1,085 
 
 8-10 
 
 
 Hungary 
 
 10,821,5581882-6 
 
 
 
 625 
 
 5-78 
 
 
 Holland 
 
 3,172,464^1882-6 
 
 35 
 
 MO 
 
 28 
 
 0-88 
 
 
 < i ermany 
 
 35,278,742i'l882-6 
 
 567 
 
 1-61 
 
 470 
 
 1-35 
 
 1 
 
 Wliat is the import of these statistics ? We per- 
 ceive at once that Italy, Spain and Hungary head the 
 list in the proportion of murders to tlie population. 
 In Italy, out of every 100,000 persons over ten years 
 of ao-e, eleven in round numbers are annually con- 
 victed of murder in one or other of its forms; in Spain 
 eight are convicted of the same offence, and in Hun- 
 gary five are convicted. These three countries are 
 
 1 Qli omicidii in, alcuni stati d'Europa. Appimti di statlstica 
 ciimparata del TJr A. Bosco, 1889. 
 
32 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 conspicuously ahead of all the others to which our 
 table refers. Austria and Belgium follow at a long 
 distance with two convictions in round numbers to 
 every 100,000 inhabitants over ten. France, Ireland 
 and Germany come next with one conviction and a 
 considerable fraction to every 100,000 persons over 
 ten; England, Scotland and Holland stand at the 
 bottom of the list with 'between seven and eight 
 persons convicted of murder to every one million of 
 inhabitants over ten. 
 
 In order to understand the full meaning of these 
 figures we must take one more step and compare the 
 numbers convicted with the numbers tried. In some 
 countries very few convictions may take place in pro- 
 portion to the number accused, while in other coun- 
 tries the proportion may be very considerable. In 
 other v/ords, in order to arrive at an approximate 
 estimate of the amount of murders perpetrated in a 
 countrj^, we must consider how many cases of murder 
 have been txned in tlie course of the year. It very 
 seldom happens that a person is tried for this offence 
 v>'hen no murder has been committed ; and it may, 
 therefore, be assumed that the crime has taken place 
 when a man has to stand his trial for it. Estimating 
 then the pi'evalence of murder in the various coun- 
 tries by trials, rather than convictions, it will be found 
 that Germany, with a much larger percentage of 
 convictions than England, has just as few cases of 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. ;,33 
 
 murder for trial. And the reason the number of 
 convictions, as between the two nations, differs, arises 
 from the fact tlrat a prisoner's chance of acquittal in 
 England is a hundred per cent, greater than it is in 
 Germany. It is not, therefore, accurate to assume 
 that a greater number of murders are committed in 
 Germany than in England because a greater number 
 of persons are annually convicted of this crime ; all 
 that these convictions absolutely prove is, that the 
 machinery of the criminal law is more effective in the 
 one country than in the other. To take another 
 instance, more persons are annually tried for murder 
 in Ireland than in France ; but more cases of convic- 
 tion are recorded in France than in Ireland. These 
 contrasts show that, while the French are less addicted 
 to this grave offence than the Irish, they are more 
 anxious to secure its detection, and that a greater 
 body of public opinion is on the side of law in France 
 than in Ireland. All these instances (and more could 
 easily be added to them) are intended to call attention 
 to the importance of looking at the number of persons 
 tried, as well as the percentage of persons convicted, 
 if we desire to form an accurate estimate of the 
 comparative prevalence of crime. 
 
 While thus showing that the number of trials for 
 murder is the best test of the prevalence of this 
 offence, it is not meant that the test is in all respects 
 
 indisputable. At most it is merely approximate. 
 
 c 
 
34 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 One obstacle in the way of its entire accuracy consists 
 in the circumstance that the proportion of persons 
 tried, as compared witli the amount of crime com- 
 mitted, is in no two countries precisely the same. In 
 France, for instance, more murders are perpetrated, 
 for which no one is ultimately tried, than in Italy or 
 in England ; that is to say, a murderer runs more risk 
 of being placed in the dock in this country than in 
 France. But the difference between the two coun- 
 tries is again to a great extent adjusted by the fact 
 that once a man is placed in the dock in France he 
 has far less chance of being acquitted than if he were 
 tried according to English law. On the whole, there- 
 fore, it may be assumed that the international statis- 
 tics of trials, corrected when necessary by the inter- 
 national statistics of convictions, present a tolerably 
 accurate idea of the extent to which the crime of 
 murder prevails among the nationalities of Europe. 
 In any case these figures will go some way towards 
 lielping us to see -whether climatic conditions have 
 any influence upon the amount of crime. This we 
 shall now inquire into. 
 
 On looking at the isotherms for the year it will be 
 observed that the average temperature of Italy and 
 opain is ten degrees higher than the average temper- 
 ature of England. On the other hand, the average 
 temperature of Hungary is very much the same as the 
 average temperature of this country ; but Hungary is 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 35 
 
 at the same time exposed to much greater extremes of 
 climate than England. In winter it is nearly ten 
 degrees colder than England, while in summer it is as 
 hot as Spain. The advocates of the direct effect of 
 climate upon crime contend that account must be 
 taken not merely of the degree of temperature, but 
 also of the variations of temperature to which a region is 
 exposed. According to this theory one of the prin- 
 cipal reasons the crime of murder is, at least, fourfold 
 higher in Hungary than in England, is to be found in 
 the violent oscillations of temperature in Hungary as 
 compared with England. In Italy murders are, at 
 least, ten times as numerous as in England ; in Spain 
 they are seven times as numerous ; the chief cause of 
 this condition of things is said to be the serious 
 difference of temperature. In the United States of 
 America there are more crimes of blood in the South 
 tlian in the North ; the main explanation of this 
 difference is said to be that the climate of the South 
 is much hotter than the climate of the North. 
 
 In opposition to this theory of the intimate relation 
 between temperature and crime, it may be urged tliat 
 the greater prevalence of crimes of blood in hot 
 latitudes is a mere coincidence and not a causal con- 
 nection. This is the view taken by Dr. Mischler in 
 Baron von Holtzendorff's " Handbuch des Gefangniss- 
 wesens.'' He says the real reason crimes of blood are 
 more common in the South of Europe than in the 
 
36 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 North is to be attributed to the more backward state 
 of civilisation in the South, and to the wild and 
 mountainous character of the country. To the latter 
 part of this argument it is easy to reply that Scotland 
 is quite as mountainous as Italy, and yet its inhabit- 
 ants are far less addicted to crimes against the person. 
 But it is more civilised, for, as M. Tarde ingeniously 
 contends, the bent of civilisation at present is to travel 
 northward. Admitting for a moment that Scotland 
 is more civilised than Spain or Ital}'-, all savage 
 tribes, on the other hand, are confessedly less advanced 
 in the arts of life than these two peninsulas. But, for 
 all that, many of these savage peoples are much less 
 criminal. " I have lived," says Mr. Russell Wallace, 
 "with communities of savages in South America and in 
 the East who have no laws or law courts, but the 
 public opinion of the village freely expressed. Each 
 man scrupulously respects the rights of his fellows, 
 and any infraction of these rights rarely or never 
 takes place." Mr. Herbert Spencer also quotes in- 
 numerable instances of the kindness, mildness, honesty, 
 and respect for person and property of uncivilised 
 peoples. M. de Quatrefages, in summing up the 
 ethical characteristics of the various races of mankind, 
 comes to the conclusion that from a moral point of 
 view the white man is hardly any better than the 
 black. Civilisation so far has unfortunately generated 
 almost as many vices as it has virtues, and he is a 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME 
 
 bold man who will say that its growth has diminished 
 the amount of crime. It is very difficult then to ac- 
 cept the view that the frequency of murder in Spain 
 and Italy is entirely due to a lack of civilisation. 
 
 Nor can it be said to be entirely due to economic 
 distress. A condition of social misery has undoubtedly 
 something to do with the production of crime. In 
 countries where there is much wealth side by side 
 with much misery, as in France and England, adverse 
 social circumstances drive a certain portion of the 
 community into criminal courses. But where this 
 great inequality of social conditions does not exist — 
 where all are poor as in Ireland or Italy — poverty alone 
 is not a weighty factor in ordinary crime. In Ireland, 
 for example, there is almost as much poverty as exists 
 in Italy, and if the amount of crime were determined 
 by economic circumstances alone, Ireland ought to 
 have as black a record as her southern sister. In- 
 stead of that she is on the whole as free from crime 
 as the most prosperous countries of Europe. In th 
 face of these facts it is impossible to say that the high 
 rate of crime in Italy and Spain is to be wholly ac- 
 counted for by the pressure of economic adversity. 
 
 Will not difference of race suffice to account for it ? 
 Is it not the case that some races are inherently more 
 prone to crime than others ? In India, for instance, 
 where the great mass of the poi;)ulation is singularly 
 law-abiding, a portion of the aboriginal inhaljitants 
 
 e 
 
38 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 have from time immemorial lived by plunder and crime. 
 '• When a man tells you/' says an official report, quoted 
 by Sir John Strachey, "that he is a Badhak, or a 
 Kanjar, or a Sonoria, he tells you what few Europeans 
 ever thoroughly realise, that he, an offender against 
 the law, has been so from the beginning and will be 
 so to the end ; that reform is impossible, for it is his 
 trade, his caste — I may almost say his religion — to 
 commit crime." It is not poverty which makes many 
 of these predatory races criminals. Speaking of the 
 Mina tribe inhabiting one of the frontier districts 
 of the Punjab, Sir John Strachey says : " Their sole 
 occupation is, and always has been, plunder in the 
 native States and in distant pai'ts of British India ; 
 they give no trouble at home, and, judging from 
 criminal statistics, it would be supposed that they 
 were an honest community. They live amid abund- 
 ance, in substantial houses with numerous cattle, fine 
 clothes and jewels, and fleet camels to carry off their 
 plunder." Special laws have been made for dealing 
 with these tribes; a register of their numbers is kept ; 
 they can be compelled to live within certain local 
 limits, but in spite of these coercive measures crime is 
 not suppressed, and " a long time must elapse before 
 we see the end of the criminal tribes of India." 
 
 Coming back to European peoples, it is worthy of 
 note that both Hungary and Finland are inhabited by 
 the same race. These two countries are separated by 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 39 
 
 about fifteen degrees of latitude, but in the matter of 
 murder the people of Finland are much more nearly 
 allied to the Hungarians than to their immediate 
 neighbours, the Swedes and Norwegians. The Finns 
 commit about twice as many murders in proportion to 
 the population as the Teutons of Scandinavia, but only 
 about half as many as the Hungarians ; and it is not 
 improbable to suppose that while the effect of race 
 makes them more murderous than the Scandinavians, 
 the effect of climate makes them less murderous than 
 the inhabitants of Hungary. 
 
 Before bringing forward any additional material on 
 one side or the other, let us pause for a moment to 
 consider the results which have just been obtained as 
 to the effect of race as compared with climate upon 
 crime.. In India we have found an Aryan and a non- 
 Aryan population living together under the same 
 climatic influences, and very much the same social 
 conditions, and we have seen that the Aborigines are 
 more criminally disposed than the Aryan invaders. 
 Again we have a Mongolian race living in the far 
 North of Europe, and we find that they show a larger 
 percentage of homicidal crime than the Teutonic in- 
 habitants who live in the same latitudes. In Hungary, 
 where the Mongoloid type" is once more met with, the 
 same facts are substantially reproduced ; this type is 
 more homicidal than the Austrian Teutons living 
 under a similar climate. While 4hese facts point to 
 
40 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 the conclusion that race has apparently some in- 
 fluence on the amount of crime, they fail to show that 
 race characteristics alone are sufficient to explain the 
 differences in criminality between the same peoples 
 when settled in different quarters of the globe. The 
 Mongoloid type in Finland is less criminal than the 
 same type in Hungary, and the Teutonic type in 
 Scandinavia is less murderously disposed than the 
 same type in the empire of Austria. It has also been 
 pointed out that the Anglo-American of the Northern 
 States is more law abiding than his brother by race in 
 the South, while both are more murderous than the 
 inhabitants of the United Kingdom, where extremes 
 of climate are not so great. 
 
 With these facts before us we shall now institute 
 another comparison between two widely separated 
 branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, namely, the 
 colonists of Australia and the people of the mother- 
 land. Of the Australian colonists it is not incorrect 
 to say that they are, on the whole, the pick of the 
 home population. It i.s perfectly true that a certain 
 proportion of ne'er-do-wells have emigrated to 
 Australia, and some of them, no doubt, help to swell 
 the normal criminal population of the colonies. But, 
 on the other hand, Australia has this advantage, that 
 the average colonist who seeks a home beyond our 
 shores is generally a superior man to the average 
 citizen who remains at home ; he is more steady, more 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 4I 
 
 enterprising, more industrious. In this way the 
 balance is adjusted in favour of the colonies. It is a 
 great deal more than redressed if the superior, social, 
 and economic conditions, under which the colonists 
 live, are also placed in the scale. In his " Problems 
 of Greater Britain," Sir Charles Dilke has shown, with 
 admirable clearness, what immense advantages are 
 enjoyed by the working population of Australia as 
 compared with the same class at home ; so much is 
 this the case that the Australian colonies have been 
 not inaptly called the paradise of the working man. 
 Here then is an excellent opportunity for comparing 
 the effects of climate upon crime. In Australia we 
 have a people of the same race as ourselves, better off 
 economically, living under essentially the same laws 
 and governed in practically the same spirit. Almost 
 the only difference between the inhabitants of the 
 United Kingdom and the communities of Australia is 
 a difference of climate. Does this difference manifest 
 itself in the statistics of crime ? In order to test the 
 matter we shall exclude the colony of New South 
 Wales from our calculations. For its size New South 
 Wales is the richest community in the world, and its 
 riches are well distributed among all classes of the 
 population. But it was at one time a penal settle- 
 ment, and it is possible that the criminal statistics of 
 the colony are still inflated by that remote cause. 
 The sister colony of Victoda stands upon a different 
 
CRIME AND ns CA USES. 
 
 footing and is free from that disturbing factoi'; we 
 shall therefore select that colony as a normal type of 
 the Australian group. In Part VII. of the Statistical 
 Register of the colony of Victoria for 1887, there is an 
 excellent summary of the position of the colony with 
 respect to crime. The admirable manner in which 
 these judicial statistics are arranged, reflects the 
 highest credit on the colonial authorities ; for fulness 
 of information and clearness of airangement they are 
 not surpassed by any similar statistics in the world. 
 As homicide is the crime on which we have hitherto 
 based our international comparisons, we shall, for the 
 present, confine our attention to the Victorian statistics 
 of this offence. 
 
 Countries 
 
 Yicfcoria 
 
 United 
 Kingdom... 
 
 Population 
 over Ten. 
 
 581,838 
 26,594,582 
 
 Years. 
 
 1882-6 
 3882-6 
 
 Tried. 
 
 Convicted. 
 
 Annual 
 Average. 
 
 22 
 505 
 
 Per 
 100,000 
 Inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 3-2 
 
 2-35 
 
 Annual 
 Average. 
 
 14 
 
 226 
 
 Per 
 
 100,000 
 Inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 2-5 
 •96 
 
 Before proceeding to analyse the contents of this 
 table, it will be as well to explain the method on which 
 it has been constructed, and the sources from which it 
 is derived. The population of Victoria, over ten years 
 of age, has been calculated according to the Victorian, 
 census for 18S1, as contained in Part II. of the Vic- 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 43 
 
 torian Statistical Register. In order to make the 
 Victorian table harmonise in all particulars with Dr. 
 Bosco's table for England, Scotland, and Ireland, the 
 excess of births over deaths has been calculated up to 
 the end of 1884. The United Kingdom, it will be 
 seen, has been selected as the measure of comparison 
 with the colony of Victoria. This selection has been 
 made on the ground that the colony of Victoria is not 
 composed of the inhabitants of any one of the three 
 kingdoms, but contains a mixture of them all. It will 
 also be observed that the homicidal crime of each of 
 the three kingdoms differs from the other, but this is 
 a consideration which we shall not further comment 
 upon at present. 
 
 After those preliminary explanations we are now in 
 a position to examine the contents of our statistical 
 table in its bearing upon crimes of blood. It will 
 now be possible to see what light the criminal statis- 
 tics of Victoria, as compared with the criminal statis- 
 tics of the United Kingdom, throw upon these crimes ; 
 and the disturbing factor of race being eliminated, 
 what is the influence of climate pure and simple upon 
 them. According to the isotherms for the year the 
 Victorians live in an atmosphere between eight and 
 ten degrees hotter than our own. Side by side with 
 this additional heat, there is, as compared with the 
 United Kingdom, an additional amount of crime. In 
 the colony of Victoria, in proportion to every 100,000 
 
44 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 inhabitants over ten years of age, there are nearly one- 
 third more murders annually than in the United 
 Kingdom. On what ground is this considerable in- 
 crease of homicide to be accounted for, except on the 
 ground of climate ? The higher percentage is not 
 caused by difference of race ; it is not caused by worse 
 economic conditions — these conditions are much 
 superior to our own — the meaning of the figures is 
 not obscured by any material differences of legal pro- 
 cedure or legal nomenclature. It cannot be urged 
 that the Victorian population are the dregs of the 
 home population ; the very opposite is the fact. The 
 bad characters who emigrate are the only disturbing 
 element ; but, after all, these men are not so numerous, 
 and the evil effects of their presence is counterbalanced 
 by the superiority of the average colonist to the average 
 citizen who remains at home. It may be said that there 
 is greater difficulty in detecting crime in a new colony 
 than in an old and settled country. As applied to 
 some colonies it is possible this objection may be 
 sound, but, as applied to Victoria, it will not hold 
 good. In Victoria the police are much more effective 
 than they are at home, and a criminal has much less 
 chance of going unpunished there than he has in 
 England. In Victoria in the year 1887, out of a total 
 of 40,693 cases reported to the police, 34,473 were 
 brought up for trial In England, on the other hand, 
 out of a total of 42,391 indictable offences reported to 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 45 
 
 the police in 1886-7, only 19,045 persons were appre- 
 hended. The Victorian figures include offences of all 
 kinds, petty as well as indictable, whereas the English 
 figures deal with indictable offences only. But ad- 
 mitting this, and admitting that it is more difficult to 
 arrest indictable offenders, this difficulty is not so 
 great as to exjilain away the vast difference in the 
 numbers apprehended in Victoria as compared with 
 the numbers apprehended in England. Only one 
 conclusion can be drawn from these figures, and it is 
 that the Victorian constabulary are more efficient 
 than our own, and that it is a more dangerous 
 thing for a person to break the law in the young 
 colony of Victoria than in the old community at 
 home. 
 
 It seems to me that the points of comparison be- 
 tween the United Kingdom and Victoria, in so far as 
 they have any bearing upon crime, have now been 
 exhausted ; on almost every one of these points Vic- 
 toria stands in a more favourable position than our- 
 selves. The colony has, on the whole, a better kind 
 of citizen ; it has superior social and economic condi- 
 tions; it has a far more effective system of poKce. 
 On what possible ground, then, is it, except the ground 
 of climate, that the Victorians are more addicted to 
 homicide than the people of the United Kingdom ? I 
 admit it would be rash to assert that climate is the 
 cause if our own and the Victorian statistics were the 
 
46 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 only documents to wliicli we could appeal ; it would 
 be rash to draw such a sweeping conclusion from so 
 isolated a basis. But when we know that the Victo- 
 rian statistics are only one set of documents among 
 many, and that all these sets of documents point to 
 the operation of the same law, the case assumes an 
 entirely different complexion. The results of the 
 Victorian statistics harmonise with the conclusions 
 already reached from a comparison of the criminal 
 statistics of Europe and America. These conclusions 
 in turn are powerfully reinforced by the experience of 
 Australia. In fact, the whole body of evidence, from 
 whatever quarter it is collected, points with remark- 
 able unanimity to the conviction that, as far as 
 European peoples and their offshoots are concerned, 
 climate alone is no inconsiderable factor in determin- 
 ing the course of human conduct. 
 
 Yet the evil influence of climate, mischievous as it 
 is at present, is not to be looked upon and acquiesced 
 in as an irrevocable fatality. At first sight it would 
 seem as if the human race could not possibly escape 
 the malevolent action of cosmical influences over 
 which it has little or no control. The rise and fall of 
 temperature, its range and intensity, is one of these 
 influences, and yet its pernicious effects are capable 
 of being held to a large extent in check. As far as 
 bodily comfort is concerned, it is marvellous to con- 
 sider the innumerable methods and devices the pro- 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 47 
 
 gressive races of mankind have invented to protect 
 themselves against the hostility of the elements by 
 which they are surrounded. In fact, an important 
 part of the history of the race consists in the ceaseless 
 efforts it has been making to improve upon and 
 perfect these methods and devices. We have only 
 to compare the rude hut of the savage with the 
 modern dwelling of the civilised man in order to see 
 to what extent we can shield ourselves from the 
 elemental forces in the midst of which we have to 
 live. We have only to mark the difference between 
 the miserable and scanty garments of the natives of 
 Terra del Fuego and the attire of the Englishman of 
 to-day to see what can be done by man in the way of 
 rescuing himself from the inclemencies of Nature. 
 If these conquests can be achieved where our physical 
 existence is in peril, there can be little reason to 
 doubt that advances of a similar nature can be made 
 in the moral order as soon as man comes to feel 
 equally conscious of their necessity. As a matter of 
 fact, in some quarters of the world these advances 
 have already in some measure been made. In the 
 vast peninsula of India the structure of society is so 
 constituted that the evil effect of climate in producing 
 crimes of blood has been marvellously neutralised. 
 It hardly admits of dispute that the caste system on 
 which Indian society is based is, on the whole, one of 
 the most wonderful instruments for the prevention of 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 crimes of violence the world has ever seen. The 
 average temperature of the Indian peninsula is about 
 thirty degrees higher than the average temperature 
 of the British Isles, and if there were no counteractino' 
 forces at work, crimes of violence in India should he 
 much more numerous than they are with us. But 
 the counteracting forces acting upon Indian society 
 are of such immense potency that the malign in- 
 fluences of climate are very nearly annihilated as far 
 as the crimes we are now discussing are concerned ; 
 and India stands to-day in the proud position of 
 being more free from crimes against the person than 
 the most highly civilised countries of Europe. In 
 proof of this fact we have only to look at the official 
 documents annually issued respecting the condition 
 of British India. According to the returns contained 
 in the Statistical Abstract relating to British India 
 and the Parliamentary paper exhibiting its moral and 
 material progress, the number of murders reported to 
 the police of India is smaller than the number re- 
 ported in any European State. The Indian Govern- 
 ment issue no statistics, so far as I am aware, of the 
 numbers tried ; it is, therefore, impossible to institute 
 any comparison between Europe and India upon this 
 important point. But when we come to the number 
 convicted it is again found that India presents a lower 
 percentage of convictions for murder than is to be 
 met with among any other people. It may, however, 
 
OLIMA TE AND CRIME. 
 
 49 
 
 be urged that the statistical records respecting Indian 
 crime are not so carefully kept as the statistics of a 
 like character relating to England and the Continent. 
 Sir John Strachey assures us that this is not the case; 
 he says that these statistics are as carefully collected 
 and tabulated in India as they are at home, and we 
 may accept them as worthy of the utmost confidence. 
 The following table, which I have prepared from the 
 official documents already mentioned, may, therefore, 
 be taken as giving an accurate account of the condi- 
 tion of India between 1882-6, as far as the most 
 serious of all crimes is concerned. In order to facili- 
 tate comparison I have drawn it up as far as pos- 
 sible on the same lines as the other tables in this 
 chapter. 
 
 Population 
 over Ten. 
 
 148,543,223 
 
 Years, i Cases of Hobiicide. 
 
 Reported. Convicted. 
 
 Annual 
 
 Average. 
 
 1882-6 .1,930 
 
 Per 
 100,000 
 Inhabit 
 tants. 
 
 1-31 
 
 Annual 
 Average. 
 
 690 
 
 Per 
 
 100,000 
 Inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 ■40 
 
 According to this table, the remarkable fact is 
 
 estabhshed that the number of cases of homicide in 
 
 India committed by persons over ten years of age 
 
 and reported to the police is smaller per 100,00') 
 
 inhabitants than the number of cases of the sxme 
 
 .'J 
 
50 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 nature brought up for trial in England. In order 
 to appreciate the full importance of this difference it 
 has to be remembered that in England a great number 
 of cases of homicide are reported to the police, for 
 which no one is apprehended or brought to trial. In 
 the ease of the notorious Whitechapel murders which 
 horrified the country a year or two ago no one was 
 ever brought to trial, hardly any one was arrested or 
 seriously suspected. These crimes and many others 
 like them materially augment the number of homi- 
 cides reported to the police, but they never figure 
 among the cases annuall}^ brought for trial before 
 assizes. As a matter of fact, no one is ever tried in 
 more than one half of the cases of homicide reported 
 to the police in the course of the year. In the year 
 1888, for instance, 403 cases of homicide were reported 
 to the police in England and Wales; but in conr.ection 
 with all these cases only 196 persons were committed 
 for trial. In short, double the number of homicides 
 are committed as compared with the number of per- 
 sons tried ; and if a comparison is established between 
 India and England on the basis of homicides reported 
 to the police, the outcome of such a comparison will be 
 to show til at there are annually more than twice as 
 many murders committed per one hundred thousand 
 inhabitants over the age of ten in England than there 
 are in India. 
 
 An objection may be taken to these figures on the 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 51 
 
 ground that the criuie of infanticide is much more 
 prevalent to India than it is in England, and that the 
 perpetrators of this crime are much less frequently 
 brought to justice in the former country than with 
 us. That objection is to some extent valid ; at the 
 same time it is well to remember that infanticide in 
 India is an offence of a very special and peculiar 
 character ; the motives from which it springs are not 
 what is usually understood as criminal; these motives 
 arise from religious usage and immemorial custom ; in 
 short, it is English law and not the Indian conscience 
 which makes infanticide a crime. Of course, the 
 practice of infanticide is a proof that the Hindu mind 
 has not the same high conception of the value of 
 infant life as one finds in the western world, and in 
 that respect India stands on an inferior moral level 
 to ourselves. But with the exception of infanticide 
 (and it is necessary to except it for the reasons I have 
 just alleged) India has not half as many homicides 
 annually as England.^ 
 
 To what cause is this vast difference in favour of 
 India to be attributed ? It is hardly probable that 
 the difference is produced to any appreciable extent, if 
 at all, by the nature of the food used by the people of 
 India. If it were correct that a vegetable diet, such 
 
 1 For the high percentage of infanticide in England see the 
 evidence given before the House of Lords last July (1890) by 
 Judges Day and Wills. 
 
52 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 as is almost exclusively used by the inhabitants of 
 India, had a salutary effect on the conduct of the 
 population, we should -witness the results of it, not 
 only in the Indian peninsula, but also in other quarters 
 of the world. The nature of the food consumed by 
 the Italians bears a very close resemblance in its 
 essential constituents to the dietary of the inhabitants 
 of India ; in both cases it is almost entirely composed 
 of vegetable products. If vegetable, as contrasted 
 with animal food, exercised a beneficial influence on 
 human conduct ; if it tended, for example, to restrain 
 the passions, to minimise the brute instincts, some 
 indisputable proof of this would be certain to show 
 itself in the criminal statistics of Italy. As a matter 
 of fact, no such proof exists. On the contrary, Italy 
 is, of all Countries within the pale of civilisation, the 
 one most notorious for crimes of blood. In the face 
 of this truth, it is impossible to believe that a vege- 
 table diet has anything to do either with producing 
 or preventing crime, and the contention that the 
 wonderful immunity of India from offences against 
 the person is owing to the food used by the inhabi- 
 tants must be looked upon as without foundation. 
 ,' The peculiar structure of society is unquestionably 
 the most satisfactory explanation of the high position 
 occupied by the inhabitants of India with respect to 
 crime. The social edifice which a people builds for 
 itself is among all civilised communities a highly com- 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 53 
 
 pies product, and consists of a great agglomeration of 
 diverse materials. These materials are partly drawn 
 from the primitive characteristics of the race; they 
 are partly borrowings from other and contiguous 
 races ; they are to a considerable extent derived from 
 natural surroundings of all kinds ; and in all circum- 
 stances they are supplemented by the genius of 
 individuals. In short, all social structures, when 
 looked at minutely, are found to be composed of two 
 main ingredients — race and environment; but these 
 two ingredients are so indissolubly interfused that it 
 is impossible to say how much is to be attributed to 
 the one, and how much to the other, in the building- 
 up of a society. But if it is impossible to estimate 
 the value of the several elements composing the fabric 
 of society, it is easy to ascertain the dominating idea 
 on which all forms of society are based. That domi- 
 nating idea, if it may for the moment be called such, 
 is the instinct of self-preservation, and it exercises 
 just as great a power in determining the formation 
 and play of the social organism as it exercises in 
 determining the attitude of the individual to the 
 woiid around him. In working out the idea of self- 
 preservation into pi'actical forms, the social system of 
 most peoples has hitherto been built up with a view to 
 protection against external enemies in the shape of 
 hostile tribes and nations ; the internal enemies of the 
 commonwealth — the thieves, the housebreakers, the 
 
54 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 disturbers of public orJer, the shodders of blood, the 
 perpetrators of violence — have been treated as only 
 worthy of secondary consideration. Such are the 
 lines on which social structure has, in most cases, pro- 
 ceeded, with the result that while external security 
 was for long periods assured, internal security re- 
 mained as imperfect and defective as ever. 
 
 The structure of society in India is, however, an 
 exception to the general rule. External security, or, 
 in other words, the desire for political freedom has, to 
 a great extent, become extinct wherever the principles 
 of Brahmanism have succeeded in taking root. 
 
 These principles have been operating upon the 
 Indian mind for thousands of years ; their effect in 
 the sphere of politics excited the wonder of the 
 ancient Greeks, who tell us that the Indian peasant 
 might be seen tilling his field in peace between hostile 
 armies preparing for battle. A similar spectacle has 
 been seen on the plains of India in modern times. 
 But Brahmanism, while extinguishing the principle 
 of liberty in all its branches, and exposing its ad- 
 herents to the mercy of every conqueror, has succeeded, 
 tlirough the caste system, in bringing internal order, 
 security, and peace to a high pitch of excellence. 
 This end, the caste system, like most other religious 
 institutions, did not and does not have directly in 
 view; but the human race often takes circuitous 
 routes to attain its ends, and while apparently 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 55 
 
 aiming at one object, is in reality securing another. 
 The permanent forces operating in society often 
 possess a very different character from those on the 
 surface, and when the complicated network in which 
 they are always wrapped up is stripped from off them, 
 we find that they are some fundamental human in- 
 stincts at work in disguise. 
 
 These observations are applicable to the caste system. 
 This system, when divested of its externals, besides 
 being an attempt to satisfy the mystic and emotional 
 elements in the Indian heart, also represents the 
 genius of the race engaged in the task of self-preser- 
 vation. The manner in which caste exercises this 
 function is thus described by Sir William Hunter in 
 his volume on the Indian Empire. " Caste or guild," he 
 says, '' exercises a surveillance over each of its mem- 
 bers from the close of childhood until death. If a 
 man behaves well, he will rise to an honoured place in 
 his caste ; and the desire for such local distinctions 
 exercises an important influence in the life of a Hindu. 
 But the caste has its punishments as well as its rewards ^ 
 Those punishments consist of fine and excommuni- 
 cation. The fine usually takes the form of a com- 
 pulsory feast to the male members of the caste. This 
 is the ordinary means of purification, or of makinsr 
 amends for breaches of the caste code. Excommuni- 
 cation inflicts three penalties : First, an interdict 
 against eating with the fellow members of the caste ; 
 
56 CRIME AND ITS CA USES. 
 
 second, an interdict against marriage within the 
 caste. This practically amounts to debarring the 
 delinquent and his family from respectable marriages 
 of any sort; third, cutting off the delinquent from 
 the general community by forbidding him the use of 
 the village barber and washerman, and of the priestly 
 adviser. Except in very serious cases, excommuni- 
 cation is withdrawn upon the submission of the 
 offender, and his payment of a fine. Anglo-Indian 
 lavf does not enforce caste decrees. But caste punish- 
 ments exercise an efficacious restraint upon unworthy 
 members of the community, precisely as caste rewards 
 supply a powerful motive of action to good ones. A 
 member who cannot be controlled by this mixed 
 discipline of punishment and reward is eventually 
 expelled ; and, as a rule, ' an out-caste ' is really a 
 bad man. Imprisonment in jail carries with it that 
 penalty, but may be condoned after release by heavy 
 expiations." 
 
 Those remarks of Sir William Hunter afford -an in- 
 sight into the coercive power exercised by the caste 
 system on the Indian population. Without that 
 system it is probable that the criminal statistics of 
 India would present as high a proportion of crimes of 
 violence and blood as now exists among the peoples of 
 Southern Europe. But with that system in active 
 operation, the evil influence of climate is completely 
 neutralised, and India at the present moment enjoys 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 57 
 
 a remarkable immunity from violent crime. With 
 the example of India before us we are justitied in 
 coming to the conclusion that homicide and crimes of 
 a kindred nature need not necessarily be the malign 
 products of climate. Whatever climate has to do with 
 fostering these offences may be obviated by a better 
 form of social organisation. It would be ridiculous to 
 dream of basing western society upon Indian models ; 
 but at the same time India teaches us a lesson on the 
 construction of the social fabric which it would be 
 well to learn. The tendency of western civilisation 
 at the present time is to herd vast masses of men into 
 huge industrial centres. It is useless discussing the 
 abstract question whether this is a good thing or a 
 bad ; we must reconcile ourselves to the fact that it is 
 a process forced upon communities by the necessities 
 of modern industrialism ; and we must accordingly 
 make the best of it. In our eff"orts to make the best 
 of present tendencies, and to render them as innocuous 
 as possible to social welfare, there is one point at least 
 where India is able to teach us an instructive lesson. 
 In India a man seldom becomes, what he too often is, 
 in all our large cities, a mere lonely, isolated unit, left 
 entirely to the mercy of his own impulses, constrained 
 by no social circle of any description, and unsustained 
 by the pressure of any public opinion for which he 
 has the least regard. In India he is always a member 
 of some fraternity within the community ; in that 
 
S8 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 fraternity or caste he feels at home ; he is never 
 isolated ; he belongs to a circle which is not too big 
 for his individuality to be lost ; he is known ; he has 
 a reputation and a status to maintain ; his life within 
 the caste is shaped for him by caste usages and tra- 
 ditions, and for these he is taught to entertain the 
 deepest reverence. Caste is in many of its aspects a 
 state in miniature within the state ; in this capacity 
 it performs a variety of admirable functions of which 
 the state itself is and must always remain incapable. 
 
 Before the era of great cities the township in the 
 West used to exercise some of the functions at present 
 discharged in India by the system of caste. But the 
 township in the old sense of the word, with its settled 
 population and the common eye upon all its members, 
 lias to a large extent disappeared. The influence of 
 the family is at the same time being constantly 
 weakened by the migratory habits modern industrial- 
 ism entails on the population ; in a word, the old 
 constraining forces, which used to hold society to- 
 gether, are almost gone, and nothing elTective has 
 sprung up to replace them. 
 
 In these circumstances what is to be done ? It is 
 useless attempting to restore the past. That never 
 lias been accomplished successfully ; all attempts in 
 tliat direction look as if they were opposed to the 
 nature of things. It is among the living and vigorous 
 forces of the present that we must look for help. I 
 
CLIMATE AND CRIME. 59 
 
 shall content myself by mentioning one of these 
 forces, namely Trade Societies. It seems a pity that 
 these societies should confine their operations merely 
 to the limited object of forcing up wages. That 
 object is, of course, a perfectly laudable and legitimate 
 one, but it is surely not the supreme and only end for 
 which a Trade Society should exist. A Trade 
 Society would do well to teach its members how to 
 spend as well as how to earn. What, indeed, is the 
 use of higher wages to a certain section of the 
 members of Trades-Unions ? The increased pay, in- 
 stead of being a blessing, becomes a curse ; it leads to 
 drunkenness, to wife-beating, to disorder in the public 
 streets, to assaults on the police, to crimes of violence 
 and blood. It is a melancholy fact that the moment 
 wages begin to rise, the statistics of crime almost 
 immediately follow suit, and at no period are there 
 more offences of all kinds against the person than 
 when material prosperity is at its height. 
 
 It lies well within the functions of such Trades- 
 Unions as possess an enlightened regard for the wel- 
 fare of their members, to introduce a code of regula- 
 tions which would tend to minimise some of the evils 
 which have just been mentioned. It would im- 
 measurably raise the status of the Union, if certain 
 disciplinary measures could be adopted against 
 members convicted of offences against the law. In 
 the professions of law and medicine it is the custom 
 
6o CRIME, AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 at the present time to expel members who are proved 
 guilty of serious offences of this description, and 
 unquestionably the dread of expulsion exercises a 
 most salutary influence on the conduct of all persons 
 belonging to these professions. It would be possible 
 for Trade organisations to accomplish much without 
 resorting to this rigorous treatment ; and the real , 
 object for which such societies exist — the well-being 
 of the members — would be attained much more effec- 
 tively than is the case at present. Wages are but tlio 
 means to an end ; the end is individual, domestic and 
 social welfare, and it is only a half measure to supply 
 the means unless something is also done to secure the 
 end. 
 
CHAPTER III- 
 
 THE SEASONS AND CRIME. 
 
 Let us now approach the question of temperature and 
 crime from another point of view. International 
 statistics indicate pretty clearly that warm regions 
 exercise an injurious effect on the conduct of European 
 peoples. Does the information furnished by these 
 statistics stand alone, or is it supported by the result 
 of investigations conducted in a different field ? To 
 this vital question it will be our endeavour to supply 
 an answer. In the annual reports of the Prison Com- 
 missioners there is an instructive diagram showing 
 the mean nuinber of prisoners in the local prisons of 
 England and Wales on the first Tuesday of each 
 month. This diagram has been published for a con- 
 siderable number of years, and if we take any period 
 of six years it is remarkable to observe the unfailing 
 regularity with which crime begins to decrease as soon 
 as the summer is over and the temperature begins to 
 fall. From the month of October till the month of 
 February in the following year, the prison population 
 
 continues almost steadily to diminish ; from the month 
 
 6i 
 
62 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 of February till the month of October, the same 
 population, allowing for pauses in its progress and 
 occasional deflections in its course, mounts upwa.rds 
 with the rising temperature. According to the last 
 sextennial diagram of the Prison Commissioners, which 
 embraces the six years ended March, 1884, the mean 
 number of prisoners in the local prisons of England 
 and Wales was, on the first Tuesday in February, 
 17,600 ; on the first Tuesday in April it had risen to 
 18,400 ; on the first Tuesday in July it had readied 
 nearly 19,000 ; on the. first Tuesday in October it cul- 
 minated in 19,200. From this date onwards the 
 numbers decreased just as steadily as they had pre- 
 viously risen, reaching their lowest point in February 
 when the upward movement again commenced. The 
 steadiness and regularity of this rise and fall of the 
 prison population, according to the season of the year, 
 goes on with such wonderful precision that it must 
 proceed from the operation of some permanent cause. 
 What is this permanent cause ? Is it economic, social, 
 or climatic ? 
 
 Is it economic ? It is sometimes asserted that the 
 increase of crime in the summer months is due to the 
 large number of tramps who leave the woikhouses 
 after the winter is over and roam the country in 
 search of employment. Many of these wanderers, it 
 is said, are arrested for vagrancy; in summer they 
 swell the prison population just as they swell the 
 
THE SEASONS AND CRIME. 63 
 
 workhouse population in winter. This explanation of 
 the increase of crime in summer contains so many- 
 elements of probability, that it has come to be rather 
 widely accepted by students of criminal phenomena. 
 It has not, however, been my good fortune to meet 
 with any facts or statistics of sufficient weight to 
 establish the validity of this explanation. As far as I 
 can ascertain it is an explanation which has obtained 
 currency almost entirely through its own intrinsic 
 probability ; it is believed, but it has not been proved. 
 Let us proceed to put it to the test. For this purpose 
 we shall select the county of Surrey — a fairly typical 
 English -county, composed partly of town and partly 
 of country. In the county of Surrey during the 
 month of July, 1888, sixty per cent, fewer persons 
 were imprisoned for vagrancy than in the following 
 month of Januaiy, 1889. As far as Surrey is con- 
 cerned, these figures effectually dispose of the idea that 
 vagrancy is more common in summer than in winter • 
 as a matter of fact they demonstrate that the very 
 opposite is the case. Surrey is the only county for 
 which I have been able to obtain trustworthy statistics 
 but there is every reason to believe that the statistics 
 of Surrey reveal on a limited scale what the whole of 
 England, if figures were procurable, would reveal on a 
 large scale. Assuming, then, that what holds good 
 for Surrey is equally valid for the rest of England, 
 the conclusion is forced upon us that the augmentation 
 
64 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 of crime in summer does not arise from an increase of 
 vagrants and others arrested and convicted under the 
 Vagrancy Acts while in search of work or pretending 
 to be in search of it. The assumption that such is the 
 case is quite unwarranted by the facts so far as they 
 are obtainable, and another explanation must be sought 
 of the greater prevalence of crime in summer as com- 
 pared with winter. 
 
 An economic cause of an opposite character to 
 vagrancy has by some been considered as accounting 
 for the facts now under consideration. In the summer 
 months, work as a rule is more easily procured ; 
 people in consequence have more money to spend ; 
 drunkenness becomes more common, and the high pri- 
 son population of summer is to be attributed to drink. 
 That there is a greater consumption of drink when 
 work becomes more plentiful is a perfectly correct 
 statement which has been verified over and over again, 
 and it is also equally correct to say that drinking 
 leads its victims to the police court. But it has to be 
 remembered that in almost all cases of drunkenness 
 the magistrate allows the alternative of a fine. A 
 much larger percentage of fines is paid in summer 
 than in winter, the result being that the increase of 
 drunkenness in summer does not disproportionally 
 increase the size of the prison population. In July, 
 1888, as compared with January, 1889, cases of felony 
 and assault, followed by imprisonment, increased in the 
 
THE SEASONS AND CRIME. 63 
 
 county of Surrey 20 aud 28 per cent, respectively, 
 while drunkenness on the other hand only increased 
 18 per cent. The reason of this relatively small in- 
 crease of imprisonment for drunkenness does not arise 
 from the fact that there is less drunkenness in propor- 
 tion to the other forms of crime ; it is owing to the 
 greater facility with which this offence can be purged 
 by the payment of a fine. It is more easily purged ia 
 this fashion in summer than in winter, because people 
 have more money in their pockets. Money, in short, 
 acts in two capacities which neutralise each other ; on 
 the one hand it brings more persons before the magis- 
 trates oil charges of drunkenness ; on the other hand, 
 it enables more persons to escape with the simple 
 penalty of a fine. The prison population is, therefore, 
 not unduly swollen in summer by the undoubted 
 increase in drinking during that season of the year ; 
 drinking has, in fact, less to do with that increase than 
 any other cause. 
 
 The preceding observations on vagrancy and drink- 
 ing will suffice to show that as far as these two factors 
 are concerned, the rise of the prison population in the 
 warm weather cannot be explained on economic 
 grounds. Are there any social habits which will 
 account for it? Change of seasons has a notable 
 effect on social habits. In the cold days of winter, 
 the great mass of the population live as much as 
 possible within the shelter of their own home ; as long 
 
66 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 as the short days and the cheerless and dismal weather 
 continue, there is little to tempt them out of 
 doors and to bring them into contact with each other. 
 But with the advance of spring this condition of 
 things is changed ; the lengthening days, the milder 
 atmosphere, the more abundant sunshine offer in- 
 creased facilities for social intercourse. Crowds of 
 people are thrown together, quarrelling and disorders 
 arise, which call for the interference of the police to 
 be followed shortly after by a sentence of imprison- 
 ment. The growth of international intercourse is 
 said to make for peace ; the growth of social inter- 
 course, admirable as it is in many respects, has the 
 unfortunate drawback of making for black eyes and 
 broken heads. Admitting the truth of this serious in- 
 dictment against our social instincts, and no one can 
 deny that it does contain a considerable amount of 
 truth, the fact still remains that weather is indirectly 
 if not directly the source from which the increase of 
 crime in summer proceeds. It is the good weather 
 that multiplies occasions for human intercourse ; the 
 multiplication of these facilities augments the volume 
 of crime ; and thus it comes to pass, that the conduct 
 of society is, at least, indirectly affected by changes of 
 season and the oscillations of temperature. 
 
 But it is also directly affected by these causes, as I 
 shall now proceed to show. In one of the principal 
 London prisons the average prison population during 
 
THE SEASONS AND CRIME. 67 
 
 the months of June, July and August for the five years 
 ended August, 1889 was 1,061, and the daily average 
 number of punishments amounted to 9 and a fraction 
 per thousand. The average population during the 
 winter months of December, January, February, for 
 the five years ended February, 1890, was 1009, and 
 the daily average number of punishments amounted 
 to 7 and a fraction per thousand. According to these 
 statistics, we have an increase of 2 punishments per 
 day, or 12 per week (omitting Sundays) to every 
 thousand prisoners in the three summer months as 
 compared with the three winter months. In other words, 
 there is a greater tendency among the inmates of 
 prisons to commit ofi'ences against prison regulations 
 in summer than in winter. In what way is this mani- 
 fest tendency to be accounted for ? If prisoners were 
 free men living under a variety of conditions, and 
 subject to a host of complex influences, it would be 
 possible to adduce all sorts of causes for the existence 
 of such a phenomenon, and it would be by no means a 
 difficult matter to find plausible arguments in support 
 of each and all of them. But the almost absolute 
 similarity of conditions under which imprisoned men 
 live excludes at one stroke an enormous mass of com- 
 plicating factors, and reduces the question to its simp- 
 lest elements. Here are a thousand men living in the 
 same place under the same rules of discipline, occupied 
 in the same way, fed on the same materials, with the 
 
6S CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 same amount of exercise, the same hours of sleep ; in 
 fact, with similarity of life brought almost to the 
 point of absolute identity ; no alteration takes place 
 in these conditions in summer as compared with 
 winter, yet we find that there are more offences com- 
 mitted by them in the hotter season than in the 
 colder. In what way, except on the ground of tempera- 
 ture, is this difference to be explained. The economic 
 and social factors discussed by us in connection with 
 the increase of crime do not here come into play. All 
 persons in prison are living under the same social and 
 economic conditions in hot weather as well as in cold. 
 The only changes to which they are subjected aro 
 cosmical ; cosmical. causes are accordingly the only 
 ones which will account adequately for the facts. 
 Of these cosmical causes, temperature is by far the 
 most conspicuous, and it may therefore be concluded 
 that the increase of prison offences in summer is attri- 
 butable to the greater heat. 
 
 Seeing, then, that temperature produces these effects 
 inside prison walls, it is only reasonable to infer that it 
 produces similar effects on the outside world. The 
 larger number of offences against prison discipline 
 which take place in the hot weather have their coun- 
 terpart in the larger number of offences committed 
 against the criminal law during the same season of the 
 year. The conclusions arrived at with respect to the 
 action of season are supported by the conclusions 
 
THE SEASONS AND CRIME. 69 
 
 already reached with respect to the action of climate. 
 In fact, both sets of conclusions support each other ; 
 both of them point to the operation of the same 
 cause. 
 
 To any one who may still feel reluctant to admit 
 the intimate relation between cosmical conditions and 
 crime I would point out that suicide — a somewhat 
 similar disorder in the social organism — likewise in- 
 creases and diminishes under the influences of tem- 
 perature. " We cannot help acknowledging," says 
 Dr. Morselli, in his work on " Suicide," " that through 
 the whole of Europe the greater number of suicides 
 happen in the two warm seasons. This regularity 
 in the annual distribution of suicide is too great 
 to be attributed to chance or to the human will. 
 As the number of violent deaths can be predicted 
 from year to year with extreme probability in any 
 particular country, so can the average of every 
 season also be foreseen ; in fact, these averages are so 
 constant from one period to another as to have almost 
 the specific character of a given statistical series." 
 Professor von Oettingen in his valuable work, " Die 
 Moralstatistik," comes to the very same conclusions as 
 Morselli, although his point of view is entirely differ- 
 ent. After mentioning several of the principal States 
 of Europe, the statistics of which he had examined. 
 Von Oettingen goes on to say that it may be accepted 
 as a general law that the prevalence of suicide in the 
 
70 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 different months of the year rises and falls with the 
 sun — in June and July it is most rampant; in 
 November, December and January it descends to a 
 minimum. In London there are many more suicides 
 in the sunny month of June than in the gloomy 
 month of November, and throughout the whole of 
 England the cold months do not demand nearly so 
 many victims as the hot. In the face of these indis- 
 putable facts Von Oettingen, while rejecting the idea 
 that there is any inexorable fatality, as Buckle be- 
 lieved, connected with their recurrence, is obliged to 
 admit that the hot weather exercises a propelling 
 influence on suicidal tendencies, and that the cold 
 weather on the other hand acts in an opposite 
 direction.^ 
 
 The influence of temperature is, however, much less 
 powerful on crime than it is on suicide. It has the 
 effect of raising by one third the number of persons 
 to whom life becomes an intolerable burden, but ac- 
 cording to the diagram in the Prison Commissioners' 
 
 ^ Distribution op Suicides in London by months of equal 
 LENGTH FEB 10,000, 1865-84 :— 
 
 January, 732. July, 905. 
 
 February, 714 August, 891. 
 
 March, 840. September, 765. 
 
 April, 933. October, 772. 
 
 May, 1003. November, 726. 
 
 June, 1022, December, 697. 
 Dr. Ogle, vol. xlix,, 117. Statistical Society's Journal. 
 
THE SEASONS AND CRIME. 71 
 
 Eeports the highest increase in crime between summer 
 and winter does not amount to more than one twelfth. 
 In other words, between six and eight per cent, of the 
 crime committed in tliis country in summer may with 
 reasonable certainty be attributed to the direct action 
 of temperature. This is a most important result and 
 I should almost hesitate to state it if it were supported 
 by my investigations only. But this is far from 
 being the case. In an important paper contributed to 
 the Revista di Discipline Carcerarie for 1886, Dr. 
 Marro, one of the most distinguished students of 
 crime in Italy, has arrived at similar conclusions. 
 He has shown that in the Italian prisons in the four 
 hottest months of the Italian summer — May, June, 
 July and August — there are also the greatest number 
 of offences against prison discipline. This is a result 
 which coincides in every particular with what has 
 already been pointed out as holding good in English 
 prisons, and the attempts of Dr. Colajanni in the 
 second volume of his work, " La Sociologia Criminale," 
 to explain it away are not by any means successful 
 It is hardly possible to conceive a more suitable form 
 of test for estimating the effect of temperature on 
 human action than the one afforded by a comparison 
 of the offences committed against prison regulations 
 at the different seasons of the year. Such a compari- 
 son amply bears out the contention that the seasons 
 are a factor which must not be overlooked in all 
 
72 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 enquiries respecting the origin of crime, and the best 
 metliods of dealing with it. 
 
 In what way does a rise in temperature act on the 
 individual so as to make him less capable of resist- 
 ing the criminal impulse ? This is a question of some 
 difficulty deserving more attention from physiologists 
 than it has yet received. It is a satisfactorily estab- 
 lished conclusion that the higher temperature of the 
 summer months has a debilitating effect on the 
 digestive functions ; it is also believed that these 
 months have an enervating effect on the system 
 generally. In so far as the heat of summer produces 
 disease, it at the same time tends to produce crime. 
 Persons suffering from any kind of ailment or in- 
 firmity are far more liable to become criminals than 
 are healthy members of the community. The intimate 
 connection between disease and crime is a matter 
 which must never be forgotten. In the present in- 
 stance, however, the closeness of this connection is not 
 sufficient to account for the growth of crime in 
 summer. According to the Registrar General's report 
 for 1889 the death rate in the twenty-eight large 
 towns is less in the six months from June to Novem- 
 ber than in the six months which follow. There is, 
 therefore, less disease at the very time when there is 
 moat crime. In the face of this fact it cannot be 
 contended that disease, generally, pushes the popula- 
 tion into criminal courses in summer. 
 
THE SEASONS AND CRIME. 73 
 
 But while this is so, it may yet be true that some 
 special enfeeblement (generated by the rise of 
 temperature) which does not assume the acute form 
 usually implied in the name, disease has the effect of 
 stimulating impulses of a criminal character, or of 
 weakening the barrier which prevents these impulses 
 from breaking out and carrying all before them. It 
 is a perfectly well-established fact that a high temper- 
 ature not only produces physical enfeeblement, but 
 that it also impairs the usual activity and energy of 
 the brain. In other words, a high temperature is in- 
 variably accompanied by a certain loss of mental 
 power. In most persons this loss is comparatively 
 trifling, and has hardly any perceptible effect on their 
 mode of life and conduct ; in others, it assumes more 
 serious proportions. In some who are susceptible to 
 cosmical influences, and for one reason or another are 
 already on the borderland of crime, the decrease of 
 mental function involved in a rise of temperature be- 
 comes a determining factor, and a criminal act is the 
 result. Through the agency of climate the mental 
 forces which are normally capable of holding the crimi- 
 nal instincts in check, lose for a time their accustomed 
 power, and it is whilst this temporary loss endures 
 that the person subject to it becomes most liable to be 
 plunged into disaster. It is in this manner, in my 
 belief, that temperature deleteriously operates upon 
 human conduct. 
 
74 CRIME AND ITS CA USES. 
 
 The results of my investigations do not, however, 
 bear out the commonly accepted view that crimes 
 against property increase in the depth of winter. 
 As far as this law relates to crime in France 
 it may be correct ; the statistical inquiries of 
 Guerry, Ferri, and Corre point to that conclusion. 
 On the other hand, as far as the law relates to 
 England, I have serious doubts as to its validity. In 
 the county of Surrey, in the year 1888-89, not only 
 more crimes against the person, but also more' crimes 
 against property were committed in July than in 
 January. In the former month, as compared with the 
 latter, cases of felony increased 20 per cent. ; and if 
 Surrey is to be taken as a fairly typical English 
 county— which there is every reason to believe it is — 
 we have before us tlie remarkable fact that there are 
 more offences against property in summer than in 
 winter. The current opinion that winter is the most 
 criminal period of the year is entirely fallacious, and 
 it is extremely probable that it is equally fallacious to 
 imagine that property is less safe when the days are 
 short and the nights long. 
 
 But while property, on the whole, is more safe in 
 winter than in summer, the offences committed against 
 it in winter are, as a rule, of a more serious character. 
 This, at least, is the conclusion which I should be in- 
 clined to draw, from the fact that there are more 
 indictable offences — that is to say, offences not tried 
 
THE SEASONS AND CRIME. 75 
 
 by a magistrate, but by a judge and jury — in the six 
 months between October and March than in the sum- 
 mer six months. For the year ended September, 1888 
 which is an average year, there were fully 2000 more 
 indictable offences in the winter six months than in the 
 summer six months. As a considerable proportion of 
 indictable offences consist in crimes against property 
 of the nature of housebreaking and burglary, it is 
 veiy probable that these crimes are most prevalent in 
 winter. But if all kinds of offences against property, 
 petty as well as grave, are thrown together, and cal- 
 culated under one head, it comes out that these offences 
 are most numerous in summer. 
 
 The only kind of crime that increases in Surrey in 
 winter is vagrancy ; the growth of this offence for the 
 years I have mentioned in January, as contrasted 
 with July, was 60 per cent. The development of 
 vagrancy in the cold months is partly owing to the 
 fact that work is not so easily procui-ed in the cold 
 weather ; and a certain percentage of the population, 
 mainly dependent for subsistence on casual and 
 irregular out-door jobs, will rather resort to begging 
 than the workhouse, when this kind of occupation is 
 temporarily at a standstill. This class, however, is a 
 comparatively small one, and constitutes a very feeble 
 proportion of the offenders against the Vagranc}'^ Acts 
 which swell the prison statistics in winter. Most of 
 the offenders against these acts are people who seize 
 
76 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 the opportunity afForded by the bitter weather of ap- 
 pealing to the sympathies of the public. In summer 
 the occupation of such persons is to some extent gone; 
 in the hot sunshine their rags and piteous looks do 
 not so strongly affect our feelings of commiseration ; 
 we know they are not suffering from cold ; their 
 petitions and entreaties accordingl3^ fall upon deaf ears! 
 in short, begging is not a paying trade in the hot 
 months. In winter, all these conditions are reversed ; 
 with the first fall of snow off go the vagrant's boots, 
 and out he runs looking the picture of misery and 
 destitution. In an hour or two, if he escapes the 
 attentions of the police, he has made as much as will 
 keep him comfortably for a few days ; but like many 
 better men his success often brings about his fall ; the 
 alms of a generous public are consumed in the nearest 
 beer-shop ; sallying forth in quest of fresh booty, and 
 made bold and insolent with drink, the beggar soon 
 finds himself in the hands of the authorities. Anyone 
 who cares to verify this statement can easily do so by 
 following the reports of the police courts, and taking 
 note of the number of convictions for drunkenness 
 and begging — a somewhat significant combination of 
 offences, and one which ought to make the incon- 
 siderate giver pause. 
 
 What are the practical conclusions to be deduced 
 from this study of the relations between temperature 
 and crime ? The first and most obvious conclusion is 
 
THE SEASONS AND CRIME. 77 
 
 that any considerable rise of temperature has a tend- 
 ency, as far as Europeans and their descendants arc 
 concerned, to diminish human responsibility. Whether 
 there are any palliatives against this tendency in the 
 way of regimen, and what they are, is a matter for the 
 consideration of physiologists ; and a most important 
 matter it is, for a high temperature does not merely 
 lead to offences against the law, it also injuriously 
 affects the conduct of children in schools, of soldiers in 
 the army, of workmen in factories, and of the public 
 generally in their relations with one anotlier. AVhile 
 it is the task of physiologists to examine the physical 
 aspects of the anti-social tendencies developed by 
 variations of temperature, it is the duty of all persons 
 placed in positions of authority to recognise their ex- 
 istence ; and to recognise their existence not merely 
 in others, but also in themselves. It is, un- 
 fortunately, not seldom true that justice is not 
 administered so wisely and patiently in the burning 
 summer heat as it is at other times. In adjudicating 
 on criminal cases in the sultry weather, magistrates 
 and judges would do well to remember that cosmical 
 influences are not without their effect on human 
 judgments, and that precipitate decisions, or decisions 
 based upon momentary irritation, or decisions, the 
 severity of which they may afterwards regret, are to 
 some extent the result of those influences. The same 
 caution is applicable to those who have to deal with 
 
78 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 convicted men; it should be remembered by them 
 that in summer their tempers are naore easily tried, 
 while they have at the same time more to try them ; 
 and the knowledge of these facts should keep them 
 on the alert against themselves. 
 
 While increased temperature undoubtedly decreases 
 personal responsibility, it is a most difficult matter to 
 decide Avhether this factor ought to be taken into con- 
 sideration when passing sentence on criminal offenders. 
 It is much more truly an extenuating circumstance 
 than the majority of pleas which receive the name. 
 In a variety of cases, such, for instance, as threats, 
 assaults, manslaughter, murder, a high temperature 
 unquestionably sometimes enters as a determining 
 factor into the complex set of influences which pro- 
 duce these crimes. But the first difficulty confronting 
 a judge, who endeavours to take suCh a factor into 
 account, will be the difficulty of discovering whether 
 it was present or not in the individual case he has 
 before him. In reply to this objection it may be 
 urged, and urged too with considerable truth, that this 
 hindrance is not insuperable. It is possible to over- 
 come it by noting whether the case in question stands 
 alone, or whether it is only one among a group of 
 others taking place about the same period. Should it 
 turn out to be a case that stands alone, it would be 
 fair to assume that temperature is not a cause requir- 
 ing to be taken into consideration in dealing; with the 
 
THE SEASONS AND CRIME. 79 
 
 offender. Should it, on the contrary, turn out to be 
 one in a group of cases, it would be equally fair to 
 assume that temperature was not without its effect in 
 determining the action of the offender. 
 
 Having got thus far, having isolated temperature 
 from among the other causes, and having fixed upon 
 it as the most potent of them all, what would immedi- 
 ately and imperatively' follow ? As a matter of course 
 it would ensue that a person whose deeds are power- 
 fully influenced by the action of temperature is to that 
 extent irresponsible for them. To arrive at such a 
 conclusion is equivalent to saying that such a person, 
 if his offences are at all serious, constitutes a grave peril 
 to society. In a sense, he may be less criminal, but 
 he is certainly more dangerous ; and as the supreme 
 duty of society is self-preservation, such a person 
 must be dealt with solely from that point of view. It 
 would be ridiculous to let him off because he is largely 
 irresponsible ; his irresponsibility is just what con- 
 stitutes his danger, and is the very reason he should 
 be subjected to prolonged restraint. 
 
 In all offences of a trivial character presumably 
 springing to a large extent from the action of tempera- 
 ture, it might be wise if the offender were only 
 punished in such a way as would keep alive in his 
 memory a vivid recollection of the offence. This 
 method of punishment is better effected by a short 
 and sharp term of imprisonment than by inflicting a 
 
8o CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 longer sentence and making the prison treatment 
 comparatively mild. A short, sharp sentence of this 
 character has also another advantage which is well 
 worth attention. In many cases the offender is the 
 bread-winner of the home. The misery which follows 
 his prolonged imprisonment is often heartrending ; 
 the home has to be sold up bit by bit ; the mother has 
 to strip off most of her scanty garments and becomes, 
 a piteous spectacle of starvation and rags, the childrens' 
 things have to go to the pawnshop; and it is fortunate 
 if one or two of the family does not die before the 
 husband is released. The misery whicli crime brings 
 upon the innocent is the saddest of its features, and 
 whatever society can do consistently with its own 
 welfare to shorten or mitigate that misery, ought, in 
 the interests of our common humanity, to be done. 
 
 One word with reference to offences which do not 
 come within the cognisance of the criminal law. I do 
 not know if there are any statistics to show that, in 
 schools, in workshops, in the army, or, indeed, in any 
 industry or institution where bodies of people are 
 massed together under one common head — there are 
 more cases of insubordination and more offences 
 against discipline when the temperature is high than 
 in ordinary circumstances. But, whether such a 
 statistical record exists or not, there can be little doubt 
 that cases of refractory conduct prevail most largely in 
 the warm season. It would therefore be well if this 
 
THE SEASONS AND CRIME. 8i 
 
 fact were borne in mind by all persons whose duty it 
 is to enforce discipline and require obedience. Con- 
 sidering that there are certain cosmical influences at 
 work, which make it more difficult for the ordinary 
 human being to submit to discipline, it might not be 
 inexpedient, in certain cases, to take these unusual 
 conditions into account and not to enforce in their 
 full rigour all the penalties involved in a breach of 
 rules. It is a universal experience that many things 
 which can ordinarily be done without fatigue or 
 trouble, become, at times, a burden and a source of 
 'irritation. Some physical disturbance is at the root 
 of this change, and a similar disturbance is also at the 
 root of the defective standard of conduct which a high 
 temperature almost invariably succeeds in producing 
 among some sections of the community. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DESTITUTION AND CKIME. 
 
 Under tbis heading I shall discuss some of the more 
 important social factors which either directly or in- 
 directly tend to produce crime. It will be impossible 
 to discuss them all. The action of society upon the 
 individual is so complex, its effects are so varied, in 
 many instances so impalpable, that we must content 
 ourselves with a survey of those social phenomena 
 which are most generally credited with leading up to 
 acts of delinquency. 
 
 It is very commonly believed that destitution is a 
 powerful factor in the production of crime ; we shall 
 therefore start upon this inquiry by considering tlie 
 extent to which destitution is responsible for offences 
 against person and property. A definition of what is 
 meant by destitution will assist in clearing the ground. 
 It is a definition which is not at all difficult to formu- 
 late; one destitute person is remarkably like another, 
 and what applies to one applies with a considerable 
 degree of accuracy to all. We shall, therefore, define a 
 
 destitute person as a person who is without house or 
 
 82 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 83 
 
 home, who has no work, who is able and wiUing to 
 work but can get none, and has nothing but starva- 
 tion staring him in the face. Is any serious amount 
 of crime due to the desperation of people in a position 
 such as this ? In order to answer this question it is 
 necessary, in the first place, to ask what kind of 
 crime such persons will be most likely to commit. It 
 is most improbable that they will be crimes against 
 the person, such as homicide or assault ; it will not bo 
 drunkenness, because, on the assumption of their 
 destitution, they will possess no money to spend. In 
 short, the offences a person in a state of destitution is 
 most likely to commit are begging and theft. What 
 proportion of the total volume of crime is due to these 
 two offences ? This is the first question we shall have 
 to answer. The second is, to what extent are begging 
 and theft the results of destitution ? An adequate 
 elucidation of these two points will supply a satis- 
 factory explanation of the part played by destitution 
 ia the production of crime. 
 
 The total number of cases tried in England and 
 Wales either summarily or on indictment during the 
 year 1887-88 amounted to 720,698. Out of this total 
 eight per cent, were cases of offences against prbperty ex- 
 cluding cases of malicious damage, and seven per cent 
 consisted of offences against the Vagrancy Acts, Putting 
 these two classes of ofl'ences together we arrive at the 
 result that out of a total number of crimes of ail kinds 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 committed in England and Wales, 15 per cent, may 
 conceivably be due to destitution. This is a very 
 serious percentage, and if it actually- represented the 
 number of persons who commit crime from sheer want 
 of the elementary necessaries of life, the confession 
 would have to be made that the economic condition 
 of the country was deplorable. But is it a fact that 
 destitution in the sense we have been using the word 
 is the cause of all these offences ? This is the next 
 question we have to solve, and the answer springing 
 from it will reveal the true position of the case. 
 
 Let us deal first with offences against property. As 
 has j ust been pointed out these constitute eight per cent 
 of the annual amount of crime. But according to in- 
 quiries which I have made, one half of the annual 
 number of offenders against property, so far from be- 
 ing in a state of destitution, were actually at work, 
 and earning wages at the time of their arrest. Nor 
 in this surprising. The daily newspapers have- only 
 to be consulted to confirm it. In a very great 
 number of instances the records of criminal proceed- 
 ings testify to the fact that the person charged is in 
 some way or other defrauding his employer, and when 
 these cases are deducted from the total of . offences 
 against property, it considerably lessens the percent- 
 age of persons driven by destitution into the ranks of 
 crime. Add to these tbe great bulk of juvenile 
 offenders convicted of theft, and that peculiar class 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 85 
 
 of people who steal, not because tliey are in distress, 
 but merely from a thievish disposition, and it will be 
 manifest that half the cases of theft in England and 
 Wales are not due to the pressure of absolute want. 
 
 But what shall be said of the other half which still 
 represents four per cent, of the annual amount of 
 crime. According to the calculations just referred to, 
 the offenders constituting this percentage were not in 
 work when the crimes charged ao-ainst them were 
 committed. Was it destitution arising from want of 
 employment which led them to break the law ? At 
 first sight one may easily be inclined to say that it is. 
 These people, it will be argued, have no work and no 
 money. What are they to do but beg or steal? Be- 
 fore jumping at this conclusion it must not be for- 
 gotten that there is such a person as the habitual 
 criminal. The habitual criminal, as he will very soon 
 tell you if you possess his confidence absolutely, de- 
 clines to work. He never has worked, he does not 
 want work ; he prefers living by his wits. Witli the 
 recollection of imprisonment fresh upon him an 
 offender of this description may in rare instances take 
 employment for a short period, but the regularity of 
 life which work entails is more than he can bear, and 
 the old occupation of thieving is again resorted to 
 To live by plundering the community is the trade of 
 the habitual criminal ; it is the only business he truly 
 cares for, and it is wonderful how long and how often 
 
86 CRIME AXD ITS CAUSES. 
 
 he will succeed in eluding the suspicion and vigilance 
 of the police. Of course, offenders of this class, when 
 arrested, say they are out of work, and will very 
 readily make an unwary person believe that it is 
 destitution which drives them to desperation. But 
 as was truly remarked a short time ago by a judge in 
 one of the London courts, nearly all of these very men 
 are able to pay high fees to experienced counsel to 
 defend them. After these observations, it will be seen 
 that the habitual criminal, the man who lives by 
 burglar}', housebreaking, shop-lifting, and theft of 
 every description, is not to be classed among the de- 
 stitute. Crimhrals of this character constitute, at 
 least, two per cent, of the delinquents annually brought 
 before the courts. 
 
 Eespecting the 2 per cent, of offenders which re- 
 main to be accounted for, it will not be far from the 
 mark to say that destitution is the immediate cause 
 of their wrong-doing. These offenders are composed 
 of homeless boys, of old men unable to work, of 
 habitual drunkards who cannot get a steady job, or 
 keep it when they get it, of vagrants who divide 
 their time between begging and petty theft, and of 
 workmen on the tramp, who have become terribly re- 
 duced, and will rather steal than enter a workhouse. 
 The percentage of these offenders varies in different 
 parts of tlie country. In the north of England, for 
 instance, there are comparatively few homeless boys. 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 87 
 
 who find their way before the magistrates on cliarges 
 of theft ; in London, on the other hand, the number is 
 considerable, and ranges accordina; to the season of the 
 year, or the state of trade, to between 1 and 3 per 
 cent, of the criminal population. Why does London 
 enjoy such an evil pre-eminence in this matter ? In 
 my opinion it often arises from the fact that liouse- 
 accommodation is so expensive in the metropolis. In 
 London, it is a habit with many parents, owing to the 
 want of room at home, to make growing lads shift for 
 themselves at a very early age. These boys earn just 
 enough to enable them to secure a bare existence ; out 
 of their scantj'- wages it is impossible to hire a room 
 for themselves ; they have to be contented with the 
 common lodging-house. In such places these boys 
 have to associate with all sorts of broken-down, worth- 
 less characters, and in numbers of instances they 
 come by degrees to adopt the habits and modes of 
 life of the class among which their lot is cast. At 
 the very time parental control is most required it is 
 almost entirely withdrawn ; the lad is left to his own 
 devices ; and, in too many cases, descends into the 
 ranks of crime. The first step in his downward 
 career begins with the loss of employment ; this 
 sometimes happens through no fault of his own, and 
 is simply the result of a temporary slackness of trade ; 
 but in most instances a job is lost for want of punctua- 
 lity or some other boyish irregularity which can only 
 
CRIME AND n^S CAUSES. 
 
 be properly corrected at home. To lose work is to be 
 deprived of the means of subsistence ; the only open- 
 ings left are the workhouse or crime. It is the latter 
 alternative which is generally chosen, and thus, the 
 lad is launched on the troubled sea of crime. 
 
 It must not be imderstood that all London boys 
 drift into crime after the manner I have just described. 
 In some instances these unfortunates have lived all 
 their life in criminal neighbourhoods, and merely 
 follow the footsteps of the people around them. 
 "What, for instance, is to be expected from children 
 living in streets such as Mr. Chai-les Booth describes 
 in his work on " Life and Labour in East London ? " 
 One of these streets, which he calls St. Hubert Street, 
 swarms with children, and in hardly any case does the 
 family occupy more than one room. The general 
 character of the street is thus depicted. " An awful 
 place ; the worst street in the district. The in- 
 habitants are mostly of the lowest class, and seem to 
 lack all idea of cleanliness or decency. . . . The children 
 are rarely brought up to any kind of work, but loaf 
 about, and, no doubt, form the nucleus for future 
 generations of thieves and other bad characters." In 
 this street alone there are between 160 and 170 
 children ; these children do not require to go to 
 lodging-houses to be contaminated; they breathe a 
 polluted moral atmosphere from birth upwards, and it 
 is more than probable that a considerable proportion 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 
 
 of them will help to recruit the army of crime. It is 
 not destitution which will force them into this course, 
 but their up-bringing and surroundings. 
 
 In addition to homeless boys who steal from destitu- 
 tion, there are, as I have said, a number of decrepit 
 old men who do the sam-e. There is a period in a 
 workman's life when he becomes too feeble to do an 
 average day's work. When this period arrives em- 
 ployers of labour often discharge him in order to 
 make way for younger and more vigorous men. If 
 his home, as sometimes happens, is broken up by the 
 death of his wife, his existence becomes a very lonely 
 and precarious one. An odd job now and again is all 
 he can get to do, and even these jobs are often hard to 
 find. His sons and daughters are too heavily encum- 
 bered with large families to be capable of rendering 
 any effective assistance, and the Union looms gloomily 
 in the distance as the only prospect before the worn- 
 out worker. But it sometimes happens that he will 
 not face that prospect. He will rather steal and run 
 the risk of imprisonment. And so it comes to pass 
 that for a year or two before finally reconciling him- 
 self to the Union, the aged workman will lead a 
 wandering, criminal life on a petty scale ; he becomes 
 an item in the statistics of offenders against property. 
 
 Habitual drunkards form another class who some- 
 times steal from destitution. The well-known irregu- 
 larity of these men's habits prevents them, in a 
 
90 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 multitude of cases, from getting work, and unfortu- 
 nately, they cannot keep it when they do get it. 
 Employers cannot depend on them ; as soon as they 
 earn a few shillings they disappear from the work- 
 shqj till the money is spent on drink. It is at such 
 times that they are arrested for being drunk and 
 disorderly. As tliey can never pay a fine they have 
 to go to prison, but long before their sentence has 
 expired thej^ have lost their job, and must look out 
 for something else. If such men do not find work 
 many of them are not ashamed to steal, and it is only 
 when trade is at flood-tide that they can be sure of 
 employment, no matter how irregular their habits may 
 be. At other times they are the first to be discharged 
 and the last to be engaged. It is not really destitu- 
 tion, but intemperance which turns them into thieves. 
 That they are destitute when arrested is perfectly 
 true, but we must go behind the immediate fact of 
 their destitution in order to arrive at the true causes 
 of their crimes. When this is done it is found that 
 the stress of economic conditions has very little to do 
 with making these unhappy beings what they are ; on 
 the contrary, it is in periods of prosperity that they 
 sink to the lowest depths. 
 
 Summing up the results of this inquiry into the 
 relations between destitution and offences against pro- 
 perty, we arrive as nearly as possible at the following 
 fiarures, so far as England and Wales are concerned : — 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 91 
 
 Proportion of offences against property to 
 
 total offences, - 8. p. cent. 
 
 Tlius divided : — 
 
 Proportion of offenders in work when arrested 4. p. cent. 
 
 Proportion of offenders, habitual thieves 2. p. cent. 
 Proportion of offenders, homeless lads and 
 
 old men 1. p. cent. 
 
 Proportion of offenders, drunkards, tramps 1. p. cent. 
 
 8. p. cent. 
 
 We shall, now proceed to an examination of offences 
 against the Vagrancy Acts presumably arising from 
 destitution. It has already been pointed out that 
 7 per cent, of the annual amount of crime committed 
 in England and Wales consists of offences against the 
 A^agrancy Acts, and it now remains for us to inquire 
 whether these offences are the result of "destitution, or 
 what part destitution plays in producing them. 
 
 Out of the 52,136 offenders against the Vagrancy 
 Acts in the year 1888, less than one half (45 per cent.) 
 were charged with begging; tlie other offences con- 
 sisted principally in prostitution, in having implements 
 of house-breaking, in frequenting places of public 
 resort to commit felony, in being found on enclosed 
 premises for unlawful purposes. In all these cases, 
 with the exception of prostitution, it is not probable 
 that destitution had much, if anything, to do wtih 
 inducing the offenders to violate the law. Men who 
 live the life of incorrigible rogues, who prowl about 
 
92 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 enclosed premises, who lead a mysterious existence, 
 without doing any work, are not to be classed among 
 the destitute ; as a general rule, such persons are 
 habitual thieves and vagabonds, who persist in the 
 life they have adopted merely because it suits them 
 best. One of the great difficulties in dealing with 
 persons of this stamp is their hatred of a well-ordered 
 existence ; in a vast number of cases the life they live 
 is the only kind of life they thoroughly enjoy ; it is a 
 profound mistake to imagine that they are pining for 
 what are usually regarded as the decencies and 
 comforts of human beings. Nothing is further from 
 their thoughts. Let us alone and mind your own 
 business is the secret sentiment and often the open 
 avowal of most of these people. " We should be 
 miserable living according to your ideas ; let us live 
 according to our own." It is very common for 
 benevolent people to assume that the objects of their 
 compassion and solicitude are, in reality, as wretched 
 as the J' imagine them to be. Living themselves in 
 ease, and it may be affluence, and surrounded by all 
 the amenities of existence, it is difficult for them to 
 realise that multitudes can enjoy a rude kind of 
 happiness in the absence of all this. Such, however, 
 is the fact. The vagabond class is not more miserable 
 than any other ; it is, of course, not without its 
 sorrows, vicissitudes, and troubles, but what section of 
 the community is free from these ills ? This class has 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 93 
 
 even a philosophy adapted to j.ts -circumstances, the 
 fundamental articles of, \YliiCh have been once for all 
 summed up in the lines of Burns : — 
 
 " Life is all a variorum ; 
 
 We regard not how it goes, 
 Let them cant about decorum 
 Who have characters to lose." 
 
 What has just been said respecting the loafing, 
 thieving vagabond applies in a very great measure 
 to the ordinary beggar. The habitual beggar is a 
 person v^ho will not work. He hates anything in the 
 shape of regular occupation, and will rather put up 
 with severe hardships than settle down to the 
 ordinary life of a working-man. It would be easy to 
 adduce instances to demonstrate the accuracy of what 
 is here stated. It would be easy to mention cases by 
 the hundred, in which men addicted to begging have 
 been thorouglily fitted out and started in life, but all 
 to no purpose. Once a man fairly takes to begging, 
 as a means of livelihood, it is almost hopeless attempt- 
 ing to cure him. After a time he loses the capacity 
 for labour ; his faculties, for want of exercise, become 
 blunted and powei-less, and he remains a beggar to 
 the end of his days. It sometimes happens that the 
 beggar who has taken to mendicancy as a profession 
 is obliged to go to the workhouse as a kind of 
 temporary refuge. Tiiis is not so frequent considering 
 
94 CRIME AND ITS CA USES. 
 
 the sort of life a vagrant has to lead ; but when it 
 does occur, the labour-master of the Union very often 
 finds it next to impossible to get him to perform the 
 task every able-bodied person is expected to complete 
 when taking shelter in a Casual Ward. As a result 
 the habitual beggar has sometimes to appear before 
 the magistrates as a refractory pauper, but a short 
 sentence of imprisonment, which usually follows, has 
 lost all its terrors for him ; he prefers enduring it to 
 doing the task allotted to him at the workhouse, 
 
 From this it will be seen that habits of indolence, 
 and not the stress of destitution, are responsible for a 
 great deal of the begging which goes on in England ; 
 bnt these habits are not answerable for the whole of 
 it. When times are bads begging lias a decided 
 tendency to increase, and this arises from the fact 
 that a considerable proportion of the community 
 possess wonderfully few resources within tliemselves. 
 Even in depressed times it is astonishing how well men 
 who can turn their hand, as it is called, can manage to 
 live. Men of this stamp are not beaten and rendered 
 helpless by the misfortune of losing their usual employ- 
 ment; they are capable of devising fresh methods of 
 earning a livelihood ; they are persistent, persevering, 
 energetic ; they are not content to stand by with their 
 hands in their pockets and their back at the wall ; at 
 times they even create an occupation, and~Sevise new 
 wants for the community. Such men exist in large 
 
DESTITUTION' AND CRIME. 95 
 
 numbers among the working population, and are able 
 to tide over periods of slackness and depression in a 
 truly admirable way. But there are others who are 
 utterly lost the moment trade ceases to flourish. As 
 soon as they lose the job they have been accustomed 
 to work at they at once sink into a condition of com- 
 plete helplessness ; knowing not whidh way to move or 
 what steps to take ; in a very short time they are to 
 be found soliciting alms in the streets. It is a very 
 serious matter when such persons are reduced to these 
 straits. With the advent of better times it is oftein 
 very difficult to enrol them once again in the ranks of 
 industrj^ Bad habits have been acquired, self-respect 
 has broken down, the mind has become accustomed to 
 a lower plane of existence ; the danger has arisen that 
 persons who were to begin with only beggars by 
 accident may end by becoming beggars from choice. 
 This is what actually does happen in some instances> 
 and especially where the level of life and comfort has 
 at all times been low. The transition from the one 
 state to the other is not a very pronounced one, and 
 the step into the position of a habitual beggar is not 
 hard to take after a certain number of lessons in the 
 mendicant's art have once been learnt. In one sense it 
 is the pressure of want which has made these people 
 beggars, in another sense it is their own apathy and 
 feebleness of resource. 
 
 It is not easy to estimate the number of persons who 
 
96 " - .CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 become habitual mendicants-- in consequence of slack- 
 ness of work and the temporary loss of employment. 
 As a matter of fact the whole body of statistical 
 information bearing upon vagrancy is rather unreliable 
 in character, and it is difficult to see how it can be 
 anything else.* In almost all cases of begging the 
 initiative is taken by the police; it very seldom 
 happens that a private citizen gives a beggar in 
 charge. The regular and systematic enforcement of 
 the Vagrancy Acts by the public authorities is impeded 
 by a variety of causes, each of which makes it difficult 
 to grasp accurately the proportions of the begging 
 population. In the first place no two policemen 
 enforce the law with the same stringency; one is 
 inclined to be lax and lenient, while another will not 
 allow a single case to escape. In some districts chief 
 constables do not care to bring too many begging 
 cases before the local magistrates ; in other districts 
 chief constables are zealous for the rooting out of 
 vagrancy. In some counties the magistrates them, 
 selves are not so anxious to convict for vagrancy as 
 they are in others ; where the latter tendency prevails, 
 the police take their cue from the magistrates and 
 comparatively few offences against the Vagrancy Acts 
 are brought up for trial. Again, there are times when 
 the public have fits of indulgence towards beggars, 
 which are counterbalanced at other peiiods by a 
 corresponding access of severity ; these oscillations of 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 97 
 
 public sentiment are immediately felt by the executive 
 authorities. The conduct of policemen and magistrates 
 towards the begging fraternity is largely shaped by 
 the dominant public mood, and the statistics of 
 vagrancy move up and down in sympathy with it. 
 Thus it comes to pass that the variations which take 
 place in the annual statistics of vagrancy do not 
 nece.ssarily correspond with the growth or diminution 
 of the number of persons following this mode of life ; 
 the actual number of such persons in the population 
 may in reality be varying very little or, perhaps 
 remaining stationary, whilst official statistics are 
 pointing to the conclusion that important changes ai'e 
 going on. In short, the statistics of vagrancy are more 
 useful as affording a clue to the state of public senti- 
 ment with respect to this offence than as offering an 
 accurate test of the extent to which vagrancy prevails. 
 After this explanation it will be seen how difficult 
 it is, in the first place, to estimate the exact numbers 
 of the vagrant population ; and, in the next place, the 
 exact proportion of beggars who have been driven 
 into the ranks of vagrancy, as a result of bad trade 
 and inability to obtain work. My own impression is, 
 that the number of persons who are forced to beg for 
 want of work is not large, and they consist, for the 
 most part, of men beyond middle life or verging upon 
 old age. There are two causes at present in operation 
 in England which often press hard upon such men. 
 
9S CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 The first of these causes is one which was felt more 
 severely twenty or thirty years ago than at the 
 present moment — I mean the introduction of machinery 
 into industries formerly carried on to a large extent 
 by hand. One of the most conspicuous characteristics 
 of the present century is the ever-increasing extent to 
 Avhich inventions of all kinds have invaded almost 
 every department of industry. As far as the • young 
 are concerned, these inventions have been on the whole 
 a benefit, and what used to be hard work has become, 
 as Professor Alfred Marshall recently said, merely 
 looking on. But the case stands differently with 
 workmen who are surprised by some new invention at 
 a period of life when the power of adaptability to a 
 fresh set of industrial circumstances is almost entirely 
 gone. One of the first consequences of a new inven- 
 tion may be, and often is, that work which had 
 hitherto been performed by men can now be done by 
 women and boys ; or an occupation which had formerly 
 taken years to learn can now be mastered in a few 
 weeks. In other cases the new machine is able to do 
 the work of twenty, fifty, or a hundred men; the 
 article produced is so immensely cheapened that the 
 old handicraftsman is driven out of the field ; if he is 
 a man entering into years, and therefore unable to 
 turn his hand to something else, the bread is practi- 
 cally taken out of his mouth, and the machine, which 
 is undoubtedly a benefit to the community as a whole, 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 99 
 
 means starvation to him as an individual. When such 
 circumstances occur, and positive proof in abundance 
 can be adduced to show tliat they do take place, the 
 position of the aged worker becomes a very hard and 
 embarrassing one. He finds it a very uphill task to 
 change the whole course of his industrial activities at 
 a period of life when nature has lost much of her 
 elasticity ; the new means he has had to adopt in order 
 to earn a livelihood are irksome to him ; the diminished 
 sum he is now able to earn per week depresses his 
 spirits and deprives him of certain little comforts he 
 had long been accustomed to enjoy ; but in spite of 
 these unforeseen and unexpected hardships it is mar- 
 vellous to see how nobly working-men, as a rule, 
 struggle on to the end, like a bird with a broken wing. 
 There are, however, cases in which the struggle is 
 given up. It would be impossible to enumerate all 
 the causes which lead to such a deplorable result; 
 sometimes these causes are personal, sometimes they 
 are social, while in many instances they are a com- 
 bination of both. But, whatever such circumstances 
 may be in origin, the effects of them are generally the 
 same ; the worker who is incapable of adjusting him- 
 self to his new industrial surroundings has few alter- 
 natives before him. These alternatives, unless he is 
 supported by his family or relations, resolve them- 
 selves into the Union, beggary, or theft. Many choose 
 the Union and, with all its drawbacks, it is un- 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 doubtedly the wisest choice ; but others have such a 
 horror of the restraints imposed upon the inmates of 
 a workhouse that tbey enter upon the perilous and 
 precarious career of the beggar or petty thief. The 
 men who make such a choice as this are not, as may 
 easily be surmised, the pick of their class. ^ They con- 
 sist, to a good extent, of persons who have been some- 
 what unsteady in their habits; they are not down- 
 riglit drunkards, and they have never allowed drink 
 to interfere with their regular occupation ; but it has 
 been their immemorial custom to go in • for a good 
 deal of drinking on Saturday nights, on Bank holidays, 
 and other festive occasions. Sensible workmen do not 
 care to amuse themselves after this fashion ; it is 
 rather too like a savage orgie for most tastes ; at the 
 same time it is the only form of amusement which 
 certain sections of the populace truly and heartily en- 
 joy, and, on the whole, it is perhaps better that this 
 rude form of merry-making should remain, than that 
 the multitude should be deprived of every outlet for 
 the pent-up exuberance of their spirits. My own im- 
 pression is, that the rough and boisterous element 
 which shows itself so conspicuously when the labour- 
 ing population is at play will never be eradicated so 
 long as men and women have to spend so much of their 
 time within the four walls of workshops and factories, 
 where so much restraint and suppression of the in- 
 dividual is imperative, if the industrial machine is to 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 
 
 go on. It is not at all unnatural that tbe severe 
 regularity and monotony o£ an existence chiefly spent 
 in this manner should be occasionally interspersed 
 with outbursts of somewhat boisterous revelr}'', and 
 the persons who indulge in it are not to be set down 
 off-hand as worthless characters, because they some- 
 times step beyond due and proper bounds. At the 
 same time it must be admitted that it is generally 
 from the ranks of this class that the supreme aversion 
 to the workhouse proceeds, and that the disposition to 
 live by begging, rather than enter it, most largely 
 prevails. If it happens, therefore, that a man who has 
 lived the life we have just described is thrown out of 
 employment, by the introduction of machinery, at a 
 period when he is too old to turn his hand to something 
 else, he not unfrequently ends by becoming a beggar, 
 and this continues to be his occupation to the last. 
 
 The second cause which leads a certain number of 
 elderly men to adopt a life of vagrancy is to be attri- 
 buted to the action of Trades-Unions. After a ' 
 workman reaches a certain period of life he is no 
 longer able to do a full day's work. As soon as this 
 period of life arrives, and sometimes even before it 
 does arrive, the artisan finds it becoming increasingly 
 difficult to obtain employment. The rate of wages in 
 his trade is fixed by Trades-Union rules ; every man, 
 no matter what his qualifications may be, has to re- 
 ceive so much an hour, or the full Trade-Union wage 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 for the district ; no one is allowed to take a job at a 
 lower figure. No doubt Trades-Unionists find that 
 tliis regulation works well as far as it relates to the 
 young and the able-bodied, and as tliese always compose 
 the great majority in every trade society, it is a 
 regulation which is not likely to be rescinded or 
 modified. Nevertheless, it is a rule which often 
 operates very unjustly in the case of men who are 
 getting old. These men may have been steady and 
 industrious workmen all their lives, they may still 
 be able to do a fair amount of honest work ; but, as 
 soon as that amount of work falls below the daily 
 average of the trade, such men have to go ; they are 
 henceforth practically debarred from earning an 
 honest livelihood at what has hitherto been the 
 occupation of their working life. Work may be 
 abundant in the district, but it is useless for grey- 
 haired men to apply ; they cannot do the amount 
 required, and as they are not permitted to work at a 
 lower rate of wages than their fellows, the means of 
 getting a living are arbitrarily taken out of their 
 hands. As a consequence of these Trades-Union en- 
 actments, cases are not infrequent in which workmen 
 who have just passed middle life, or have sustained 
 injuries, drift insensibly into vagrant habits. These 
 habits are acquired almost without their knowing it. 
 In the vague hope of perhaps finding something to do 
 a man will wander from town to town existing as 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 103 
 
 best he can ; after the hope of employment has died 
 away he still continuesto wander, and thus forms an 
 additional unit in the permanent army of beggars and 
 vagrants. Trade-Unionists would undoubtedly 
 remedy a great wrong if some effective means were 
 devised by them to meet cases of this character. It 
 should be remembered by those most opposed to any 
 modifications of the present system that they may one 
 day be its victims. The hindrances in the way of 
 putting an end to the injustice inherent in the 
 present arrangements are not incapable of being over- 
 come. It is surely possible to devise a rule which, 
 while leaving intact the essential features of the 
 present system, will render it more flexible — a rule to 
 enable the maimed and the aged who cannot do a full 
 day's work to make, through the Union if need be, 
 some special arrangement with the employers. Such 
 a rule, if properly safe-guarded to prevent abuse, would 
 be of inestimable benefit to many a working man. 
 
 If the step here suggested were adopted by the Trade 
 Societies, it would, according to calculations which 
 I have made, reduce the begging population by about 
 two per cent. This percentage, in my opinion, repre- 
 sents the number of vagrants who are able and willing 
 to do a certain amount of work, but cannot get it to 
 do. It is a percentage which at any rate does not 
 err on the side of being too low ; when trade is at its 
 ordinary level it is perhaps a little too high. In any 
 
104 CRIRIE AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 case this proportion maybe taken as a tolerably accurate 
 estimate of the numbers of the vagrant class which 
 will not enter the Unions when out of employment, 
 and are consequently forced by the pressure of want 
 to resort to a life of beggary. 
 
 The proportion here indicated of the aumber of 
 vagrants who are willing to work coincides in a re- 
 markable manner with certain statistics recently 
 collected by M. Monod of the Ministry of the Interior 
 in France.^ According to M. Monod a benevolently 
 disposed French citizen wished to know the amount 
 of truth contained in the complaints of sturdy beggar,s, 
 that they were willing to work if they could get any- 
 thing to do or anyone to employ them. This gentle- 
 man entered into negotiations with some merchants and 
 manufacturers, and induced them to offer work at the 
 rate of four francs a day to every person presenting 
 himself furnished with a letter of recommendation 
 from him. In eight months 727 sturdy beggars came 
 under his notice, all complaining that they had no work. 
 Each of them was asked to come the following day to 
 receive a letter which would enable him to get employ- 
 ment at four francs a day in an industrial 
 establishment. More than one half (415) never came 
 for the letter ; a good many others (138) returned for 
 
 1 Of. L'Etat Moderne et ses Fonctions par Faid LeroyBeaulicu, 
 p. 300. See also Mr. J. 0. Sherrard's letter to the Times of 
 January 8th, 1891, on " Tramps." 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME, 105 
 
 the letter but never presented it. Others who did 
 present their letter worked half a day, demanded two 
 francs and were seen no more. A few worked a whole 
 daj' and then disappeared. In short, out of the whole 
 727 only 18 were found at work at the end of the third 
 day. As a result of this experiment M. Monod con- 
 cludes that not more than one able-bodied beggar in 
 40 is inclined to work even if he is offered a fair 
 remuneration for his services. 
 
 If further proof were wanted that vagrancj', as far, 
 afc least, as England and Wales are concerned, is very 
 seldom produced by destitution, it will be found in 
 the following facts. A comparison between the 
 number of male and female vagrants arrested in 1888 
 under the provisions of the Vagrancy Acts shows that 
 there were nearly four times more male vagrants pro- 
 ceeded against before tlie magistrates than female. 
 The exact numbers are males, 40,672 ; females, 11,464. 
 Although the numbers charged vary from year to 
 year, the proportion between males and females always 
 remains very much the same, and it may therefore be 
 considered as established that men are from three to 
 four times more addicted to vagrancy than women. 
 If the charges of prostitution were excluded (they 
 amounted to 6,486 in 1888), it will be found that 
 the proportion of male vagrants to female is as eight 
 to one. Looking at this matter d 'priori, we should 
 expect these figures to be reversed. In the first 
 
io6 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 place women form a considerably larger proportion 
 of the community than men, and in the second 
 place there are not nearly so many openings for 
 females in our present industrial system. Forming 
 a judgment upon these two sets of facts alone, one 
 would almost inevitably come to the conclusion 
 that women would be found in much larger numbers 
 among the vagrant class than men. There are fewer 
 careers open to them in the industrial world ; they are 
 less fitted to move about from place to place in search 
 of work ; the pay they receive in manufacturing and 
 other establishments is, as a rule, very poor ; but in 
 spite of all these economic disadvantages only one 
 woman becomes a beggar to every four men, or, if we 
 exclude fallen women, to every eighl; men. What does 
 this condition of things serve to show ? It is an in- 
 contestable proof that at least three-fourths or, 
 perhaps, seven-eights of the begging carried on by 
 men is without economic excuse. |f women who are 
 so heavily handicapped in the race of life can run it 
 to such a large extent without resorting to vagrancy 
 so can men. That men fall so far behind women in 
 this respect is to be attributed, as we have seen, not 
 to their want of power, but to their want of will. 
 They possess far more opportunities of earning a liveli- 
 hood than their sisters, but, notwithstanding this 
 advantage, they figure far more prominently in the 
 vagrant list. The only possible explanation of this 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 107 
 
 state of tilings is that vagrancy is, to a very large 
 extent, entirely unconnected with economic conditions ; 
 the position of trade either for good or evil is a very 
 secondary factor in producing this disease in the body 
 politic; its extirpation would not be effected by the 
 advent of an economic millennium ; its roots are, as a 
 rule, in the disposition of the individual, and not to 
 any sei'ious degree in the industrial constitution of 
 society; hence, the only way to stamp it out is by 
 adopting vigorous and effective methods of repression. 
 The British Isles are in a position to adopt these 
 measures with boldness and confidence, for the Poor 
 Law system provides for all genuine cases of destitu- 
 tion, and in striking at begging with a heavy hand, 
 the authorities are at the same time doing much to 
 suppress other kinds of crime. It has to be remem- 
 bered that the vagrant is a dangerous person in more 
 ways that one. The life he leads, his habit of going 
 from house to house, affords him ample opportunities 
 of noticing where a robbery may be successfully com- 
 mitted. If he does not make use of the opportunities 
 himself, he is not at all unwilling to let others who 
 will into his secret for a small consideration. In low 
 lodging-houses and public-houses of a similar type 
 beggars and thieves are accustomed to meet, to 
 fraternise, to exchange notes; the beggar is able to 
 give the burglar a hint, and many a case of house- 
 breaking is the outcome of these sinister confabula- 
 
loS CRIME AND ITS CA USES. 
 
 tions. Little do many people imagine when they are 
 doing a good deed, as they believe, to some worthless, 
 wandering reprobate, that he is at the same moment 
 looking around, so as to be able to tell a companion 
 how best the house may be robbed. It is very seldom 
 thieves break into houses without having received 
 information beforehand respecting them, and the 
 source of that information is in many instances the 
 vagrant, who has been knocking at the door for alms 
 a short time before. 
 
 One of the principal reasons which makes beggary 
 such a profitable occupation, and renders it so hard to 
 repress, is the persistent belief among great numbers 
 of people that beggars are working men in distress. 
 That, of course, is the beggar's tale, but it is a baseless 
 fabrication. It is no more the practice of worlcing- 
 men to go about begging than it is the practice of the 
 middle-class, but until this elementary fact can be 
 laid hold of by the public all statutory enactments for 
 the suppression of mendicity will be but partial in 
 their operation. Speaking from considerable personal 
 experience, as well as from statistical facts, one is able 
 to affirm that the great mass of the working popula- 
 tion of these islands have nothing whatever in common 
 with the indolent vagrant; and it is a libel on the 
 working-classes to assume that a man is a workman 
 to-day and a beggar to-morrow. As a matter of 
 fact, beggars are recruited from all ranks of the 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 109 
 
 community, when they are not actually born to the 
 trade. Of course, the greatest number is drawn from 
 the working population; it is they who form the 
 immense bulk of the nation, and it is only reasonable 
 to suppose that they will contribute to the begging 
 fratei-nity in proportion to their numbers. But, just 
 as the proportion of thieves drawn from the working- 
 classes is not greater than the proportion drawn from 
 the well-to-do classes, so is it likewise with beggars. 
 The other classes, in proportion to their numbers, 
 contribute just about as many beggars to the com- 
 munity as the working population, and such beggars 
 are generally the most hardened and villainous speci- 
 mens of their tribe. With the beggar sprung from 
 the working population one is sometimes able to do 
 something, but a beggar who has descended from 
 the higher walks of life is one of the most hopeles.s, as 
 well as one of the most corrupt creatures it is possible 
 to conceive. If the public would only allow them- 
 selves to realise that these are the facts respecting 
 vagrancy, and if they would exercise their knowledge 
 in consistently refusing help to professional wanderei-s, 
 the plague of beggars would soon disappear, to the 
 immense relief and benefit of everybody, not excluding 
 the beggars themselves. 
 
 A persistent refusal to assist beggars, while per- 
 fectly justifiable in these islands, is a method which 
 can hardly be adopted in countries where there is no 
 
no CRIME AND Its CAUSES. 
 
 efficient and comprehensive Poor Law. In such coun- 
 tries, for instance, as Austria and Germany, where 
 there is no proper provision on the part of the State 
 for the feeble, the helpless, the aged, the maimed, 
 begging, on the part of these unfortunates, becomes, 
 in many cases, an absolute necessity. Recent statis- 
 tics,^ respecting the working of additions to the 
 Austrian vagrancy laws passed in 1885, would seem 
 to show that numbers of the genuine labouring popu- 
 lation have been in the habit of resorting to begging 
 when going from place to place in search of employ- 
 ment. To meet these cases the Austrian Government, 
 in the year just mentioned, secured the passing of a 
 law for the establishment of what are called Natural- 
 verpflegstationen, or refuges for workmen on the 
 tramp. These shelters or refuges are strictly con- 
 fined to the use of genuine labourers ; the poor of the 
 surrounding neighbourhood are not allowed to enter 
 them; nor is any one affijrded shelter who cannot 
 show that be has been at work within the previous 
 three months, or who applies twice for admission in 
 the course of that time. A man must also produce 
 his papers and be willing to perform a certain amount 
 of work ; in return for this he is allowed to remain at 
 the shelter for eighteen hours, but not more, and is 
 informed on his departure where the next station is 
 situated. He is also told if there is any probability 
 ^ Cf. Conrad's Handivorterhiich der Staatswissenscliaftcit, i. 928. 
 
DESTITUTION AAD CRIME. 
 
 of getting employment in the district and is given tlie 
 names of employers in want of men. These institu- 
 tions are a combination of the casual ward and the 
 labour bureau, diflfering, however, from the casual 
 ward in rejecting all mere wanderers and accepting 
 genuine workmen alone. 
 
 It is only in some parts of the Austrian Empire 
 that this system has as yet been put into operation, 
 for the act is of a permissive character and is mainly 
 worked by the local authorities. In those districts of 
 lower Austria where it has been tried, it has so far 
 produced most satisfactory results ; begging has de- 
 creased, according to the statistics for 1888, more 
 than 60 per cent, in the course of three years, while 
 in other parts of Austria, where these institutions are 
 not yet adopted, it has only decreased 25 per cent. 
 The system has as yet been in operation for too short 
 a period to enable an opinion to be formed of its 
 eventual success, but so far it promises well and is an 
 interesting experiment which deserves to be watched. 
 In any case the experience derived from the working 
 of this law shows that in Austria, at least, the work- 
 man in search of employment has up till recently 
 been too often confounded with the habitual beggar, 
 a confusion highly detrimental to the real interests of 
 the State. One of the main objects of every well 
 ordered Poor Law system should be to create as wide 
 a gulf as possible between the begging class and the 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 working-class; it should do everything possible to 
 prevent anything like a solidarity of interests between 
 these two sections of the community ; it* should dis- 
 sociate the worker from the vagrant in every con- 
 ceivable manner, so that the working population 
 cannot possibly fail to see that the State draws a 
 sharp line of distinction between them and the refuse 
 of the land. It was a wise remark of Goethe's that, 
 if you want to improve men you must begin by 
 assuming that they are a little better than what they 
 seem ; and it is a principle which is applicable to 
 communities and classes as well as to individuals. 
 
 Before dismissing the question of the relations 
 between vagrancy and destitution there is one more 
 point which still requires to be considered. Accord- 
 ing to English law, prostitution is set down as a form 
 of vagrancy, and the number of persons convicted of 
 this offence is to be found included in the statistics 
 of vagrancy. We shall, therefore, consider prostitu- 
 tion in this connection as a form of vagrancy, and 
 proceed to examine the extent to which it is produced 
 by destitution. If this grave social disorder were 
 entirely due to a want of the elementary needs of life 
 on the part of the unhappy creatures who practice it, 
 we should find an utter absence of it in America and 
 Australia, "in these two important portions of the 
 globe, woman's work is at a premium ; it is one of the 
 easiest things imaginable for females to get employ^ 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 113 
 
 ment; no one willing to work need remain idle a 
 single day, and the bitter cry of householders, in those 
 quarters of the world, is that domestic servants are 
 not to be had. But, in spite of the favourable posi- 
 tion in which women stand, as far as work is con- 
 cerned in America and Australia, what do we find ? 
 Do we find that there is no such thing as a fallen 
 class in Melbourne and New York? On the contrary, 
 it is often a subject of bitter complaint by American 
 and Australian citizens that their large towns are 
 just as bad, as far as sexual morality goes, as the 
 cities of the old world. The higher economic posi- 
 tion of women does not seem to touch the evil either 
 in the Antipodes or beyond the Atlantic. It exists 
 among communities where destitution is an almost 
 unmeanins word ; it exists in lands where no woman 
 need be idle, and where she is highly paid for her 
 services. In the face of such facts it is impossible to 
 believe that destitution is the only motive which 
 impels a certain class of women to wander the streets. 
 What is true with respect to destitution is that it 
 compels women to remain in the deplorable life they 
 have adopted, but it seldom or never drives them to 
 take to it. Almost all the best authorities are agreed 
 upon this point. No one has examined this social sin 
 in all its bearings with such patience and exhaustive- 
 ness as Parent Duchatelet, and his deliberate opinion, 
 after years of investigation, is that its origin lies in 
 
 H 
 
114 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 the character of the individual, in vanity, in slothful- 
 ness, in sex. It does not, however, follow that a 
 I person possessing these characteristics in an abnormal 
 degree is bound to fall. If such a person is protected 
 by parental care, no evil results need necessarily 
 ensue. It is when low instincts are combined witli a 
 bad home that the worst is to be feared. This fact 
 was clearly and emphatically brought to light by the 
 parliamentary inquiry which took place in France a 
 few years ago. M. Th. Roussel, one of the highest 
 authorities on the committee, the man, in fact, from 
 whom the inquiry derived its name, thus sums up 
 some of its results : " However large a part in the 
 production of prostitution must be allowed to the love 
 of pleasure and of finery, to a dislike of work and to 
 debased instincts, the cause which, according to the 
 facts cited, appears everywhere as the most powerf lU 
 and the most general, is the want of a home, the want 
 of matei'nal care." Here are some of the facts on 
 which M. Roussel bases his general statement. "At 
 Bordeaux, out of 600 ' filles inscrites ' 98 were minors. 
 Of the latter, 44 appear to have fallen through their 
 own fault alone. The remaining 54 grew up under 
 abnormal, domestic conditions; 14 were orphans, with- 
 out father or mother, 7 had only one parent, 32 had 
 been abandoned or perverted by their parents." 
 
 In England it would be impossible to conduct a 
 parliamentary inquiry on the lines of the " Enquete 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. iij 
 
 Roussel," but it is very probable if such an inquiry 
 were instituted it would reveal a condition' of things 
 very similar to what exists in France. The scattered 
 and fragmentary information we do possess points 
 to that conclusion, and the conclusion, it must be ad- 
 mitted, is not at all a hopeful or comforting one. 
 Supposing that all the homeless and deserted female 
 children we have now in our midst were immediately 
 placed under the protection of the State (as a matter 
 of fact, most of them are), it does not follow that they 
 will grow up to lead regular lives. According to the 
 thirty-second report of the Inspector of Reformatory 
 and Industrial Schools, the authorities are unable to 
 account satisfactorily for the character of more than 
 four fifths of the inmates of girls' industrial schools 
 who have left these institutions on an average for 
 two or three years. That is to say, it is probable that 
 about twenty out of every hundred girls go to the 
 bad within two or three years of leaving an industrial 
 school. The proportion of girls discharged from re- 
 formatory schools, whose character is bad within two 
 years of their discharge, is still larger than in the 
 case of industrial schools. This is only what might 
 be expected, for it is the worst cases that are now 
 sent to reformatory schools. "Since the passing of 
 the Elementary Education Act," said Miss NicoU of 
 the Girls' Reformatory, Hampstead, at the Fourth 
 Conference of the National Association of certified 
 
Ii6 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 Reformatory and Industrial Schools, " a great change 
 has gradually been made in the character and age of 
 the inmates of our reformatories on admission. The 
 School Boards of the country, and more especially the 
 School Board of London, by enforcing compulsory 
 attendance of all the children of the poor between the 
 ages of five and thirteen, have swept into what are 
 termed Truant Schools all the neglected and uncon- 
 trollable children who were formerly sent to certified 
 industrial schools — tbese latter being now retained 
 in a great measure for children who, besides being 
 neglected and beyond the control of their parents, 
 liave either taken their first steps in a course of crime, 
 or have, by association with vicious companions, be- 
 come familiar with it. The industrial schools have 
 thus intercepted the very class from which our num- 
 bers were usually drawn, leaving, as a rule, for 
 reformatories, girls about fifteen, who, though nomin- 
 ally under fifteen, are sometimes a good deal older 
 when admitted. Young persons, as these are termed 
 in the Summary Jurisdiction Acts of 1879, are of a 
 much more hardened character than before, and in 
 addition to having been guilty of acts of petty larcenj^, 
 have frequently been prostitutes for some time 
 anterior to their admission. This being so, it can 
 hardly be wondered at if the success of reformatories 
 is not so marked as it was when they were first 
 instituted." 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 117 
 
 Seeing that reformatories for girls, on account of 
 the more hardened character of their inmates on ad- 
 mission, are not so successful as industi'ial schools, it 
 is certainly within the mark to say that at least one- 
 fourth of the cases discharged from these institutions 
 become failures in the space of two years. If the 
 proportion is so high at the end of two years, what 
 will it amount to at the end of five ? It is then that 
 the young person enters upon what is 'par excellence 
 the criminal age, and when that age is reached, I fear 
 that the proportion of failures increases considerably. 
 In any case we have sufBcient data to show that the 
 protection of the State, when extended, as it is in the 
 United Kingdom, to helpless and homeless girls, does 
 not in many instances suffice to keep them on the 
 road of virtue. Deep-seated instincts manage to 
 assert themselves in spite of tlie most careful training, 
 the most vigilant precautions, and until the moral 
 development of the population, as a whole, reaches a 
 higher level, it will be vain to hope too much from 
 the labours of State institutions, however excellent 
 these institutions may be. 
 
 It has, however, to be remembered that the fallen 
 class is not by any means recruited exclusively from the 
 ranks of the helpless and the homeless. On the con- 
 trary, according to the evidence of the Roussel com- 
 mission, nearly one half of the minors (44 out of 98) 
 found in the " maisons de tolerance " of Bordeaux had 
 
Ii8 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 no domestic or economic impediments to encounter. 
 External circumstances, as far as could be seen, had 
 nothing to do with the unhappy position in which they 
 stood, and the life they adopted appears to have been 
 entirely of their own choosing. It is true the Bord- 
 eaux statistics only cover a small area, and are not to 
 bo looked upon as in themselves exhaustive, but when 
 those statistics confirm, as they do, the careful obser- 
 vations of all unbiassed investigators, we cannot be 
 far wrong in coming to the conclusion that in France, 
 at least, fifty per cent, of the cases of prostitution are 
 not originally due to the pressure of want. Since the 
 introduction of Truant and Industrial Schools in this 
 country for homeless and neglected girls, it is certain 
 that the proportion of those who fall from sheer desti- 
 tution must be extremely small. On the Continent, 
 where such institutions do not exist on such 
 an extensive scale, the proportion may be somewhat 
 larger, Ijut in the United Kingdom it cannot, accord- 
 ing to the most liberal computation, exceed ten per 
 cent, of the cases brought before the magistrates. 
 Many experienced observers will not allow that it 
 reaches such a high percentage. 
 
 We are now in a position to tabulate the results of 
 our inquiries as to the part played by destitution in 
 producing prostitution and vagrancy. The following 
 table representsthe proportion of persons chargedundcr 
 the provisions of the Vagrancy Acts in the yoar 1888; — 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 119 
 
 Percentage of beggars, - - - 45 per cent. 
 
 Percentage of prostitutes, - 12 ,, 
 
 Percentage of other oflfenders, - - 43 ,, 
 
 100 per cent. 
 
 Percentage of beggars destitute from misadventure, 2 per cent. 
 Percentage of prostitutes, do. do. 10 ,, 
 
 Percentage of otlier offenders, do. do. 2 ,, 
 
 14 per cent. 
 
 It has already been pointed, out that persons charged 
 with offences against the Vagrancy Acts constitute on 
 an average 7 per cent, of the total annual criminal 
 population. According to the statistics we have just 
 tabulated, 5 pei cent, of these offences are not due to 
 the pressure of destitution, and only 2 per cent, are to 
 be attributed to that cause. 
 
 Let us now collect the whole of the figures set forth 
 in this chapter, so that we may be in a position to 
 give an answer to the question with which we set out, 
 namely, to what extent are theft and vagrancy the' 
 product of destitution ? 
 
 Proportion of offences against Property and 
 the Vagrancy Acts to total number of 
 offences tried in 1888, - - 15 per cent. 
 
 Proportion of offenders against property de- 
 stitute, . - - - - 2 ,, 
 
 Proportion of offenders against Vagrancy 
 
 Acts destitute, - - 2 ,, 
 
 Adding together the two classes of offenders against 
 Property and the Vagrancy Acts who, according to 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 our calculations, are destitute when arrested, we arrive 
 at the fact that they form four per cent, of the total 
 criminal population. As has already been pointed out, 
 beggars and thieves are almost the only two sections 
 of the criminal community likely to be driven to the 
 commission of lawless acts by the pressure of absolute 
 want. It very seldom happens that murders, for in- 
 stance, are perpetrated from this cause ; in fact, not 
 one murder in ten is even committed for the purpose 
 of theft. The vast majority of the remaining offences 
 against the criminal law are only connected in a remote 
 degree with the economic condition of the population, 
 and in hardly any instance can it be said of them, that 
 they are the outcome of destitution. In order, how- 
 ever, to err on the safe side, let us assume that one per 
 cent, of offenders, other than vagrants and thieves, are 
 to be ranked among the destitute. What is the final 
 result at which we then arrive with respect to the 
 percentage of persons forced by the action of des- 
 titution into the army of crime ? In the case of 
 vagrants and thieves it has just been seen that the 
 proportion amounted to four per cent.; adding one per 
 cent, to this proportion, brings up the total of offenders 
 who probably fall into crime through the pressure of 
 absolute want to five per cent, of the annual criminal 
 population tried before the courts. 
 
 These figures are important ; they demonstrate the 
 fact that although there was not a single destitute 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 
 
 person in the whole of England and Wales, the annual 
 amount of crime would not be thereby appreciably 
 diminished. At the present day it is a very common 
 practice to pick out a case of undoubted hardship here 
 and there, and to assume that such a case is typical of 
 the whole criminal population. It is, of course, well 
 to point out such cases, and to emphasise them as 
 much as possible till we reach such a pitch of excel- 
 lence in our administi-ation of the law as will render all 
 unmerited hardship exceedingly rare. As it is, such 
 cases are becoming less frequent year by year, and it 
 is an entire mistake to suppose, as is too often done, 
 that a serious amount of the crime perpetrated in 
 England is committed by men and women who are 
 willing to work but cannot get it to do. An opinion 
 of that kind has an alarming tendency to encourage 
 crime ; it creates a false sentiment of compassion for 
 the utterly worthless ; it prevents them from being 
 dealt with according to their deserts, and worst of all, 
 it is apt to make the working population imagine that 
 there is a community of interest between them and 
 the criminal classes which does not in reality exist. 
 From the point of view of public policy nothing can 
 be more pernicious than to propagate such an idea ; 
 and no artisan who values his own dignity should 
 ever allow any man, whether on platforms or in news- 
 papers, to identify him in any way whatever with the 
 common criminal. 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 Before finally leaving the question of the relations 
 between destitution and crime, we shall now briefly 
 inquire whether anything further can be accomplished 
 in the matter of raising our legal and poor law ad- 
 ministration to such a pitch of excellence, that not 
 even five per cent, of our incriminated population can, 
 with justice, bring forward any economic pretext 
 whatever for violating the law. As far as legal ad- 
 ministration is concerned, it must be remembered that 
 mistakes will sometimes occur, no matter how numerous 
 the precautions maybe with which justice is surrounded. 
 
 To be certain of justice in all circumstances you 
 must have not only an infallible law, but also an 
 infallible judge and an infallible method of criminal 
 administration. It is a truism to say that this is an 
 impossibility, and every now and again society will 
 have to submit to be shocked by the revelation of a 
 palpable miscarriage of justice. At the same time it 
 is important to take every possible precaution against 
 the occurrence of such distressing accidents. This can 
 only be efiected by placing the administration of the 
 law in all its departments, from the policeman to the 
 Home Secretary, in the hands of thoroughly competent 
 oQicials who have not only their heart, but what is 
 equally important, their head in the work. When this 
 is done, and if these ofiicials are not embarrassed by 
 public clamour in the performance of their duties 
 (honest criticism will do them good), all will have been 
 
DES7IT07I0N AND CRIME. 123 
 
 accomplished which it is possible to get in the way 
 of effective and enlightened administration of the law. 
 In the next place it may be possible to mitigate the 
 operation of our present poor law system in all cases 
 of destitution through misadventure. Some prominent 
 politicians — and I believe among them Mr. Morley — 
 appear to be in favour of this course ; and at a recent 
 meeting of the British Association, Professor Alfred 
 Marshall was inclined to the belief that a much larger 
 discrimination might be allowed than now exists in 
 the administration of out-door relief in cases of actual 
 want ; and also that separate and graduated work- 
 houses might be established for the deserving poor. 
 It will be admitted on all hands that proposals of this 
 character land us on very delicate ground, and require 
 the most mature consideration. Even now the inmate 
 of a workhouse is often better supplied with food, 
 clothing, and shelter than the poor labourer, who has 
 to pay taxes to support him. If the condition of that 
 inmate is made still more comfortable, will it be 
 possible to prevent hundreds and thousands of the 
 very poor, who now keep outside these institutions, 
 from immediately crowding into them as soon as the 
 slightest economic difficulties arise ? Almost all phil- 
 anthropic sciiemes, and especially all such schemes 
 when supported by the jniblic purse, have a tendency 
 to be administered with moje and more laxity as lime 
 goes on ; and a scheme of this kind, if carried into 
 
124 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 law, would require to be managed with the utmost 
 circumspection in order to avoid pauperising great 
 masses of the community. 
 
 A scheme of this character will, however, have to be 
 tried if the manifesto of the Executive Council of the 
 Dockers' Union, issued in September last, is to be 
 acted upon by Trade-Unionists in general. According 
 to the doctrine laid down in this manifesto, the idea 
 of a Trade-Union, as a free and open combination, 
 which every workman may enter, provided he pays 
 his subscription and conforms to the rules, is an idea 
 which must for the future be abandoned, Henceforth, 
 a Trade-Union is to be a close corporation to be worked 
 for the benefit of persons who have succeeded in 
 getting inside it. The Dockers' Union, to do them 
 justice, see that this policy is bound to increase the 
 numbers of the destitute, but they propose to remedy 
 this condition of things by establishing "in each 
 municipality factories and workshops where all those 
 who cannot get work under ordinary conditions shall 
 have an opportunity afforded them by the community." 
 If these State establishments are to be started for the 
 unemployed, the workers in them must work at some- 
 thing, and it will have to be something which the un- 
 skilled labourer will not require a great deal of time 
 to learn. What would the dockers say if one of 
 these establishments was instituted by the muni- 
 cipality for the loading and unloading of ships ? 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME 125 
 
 Hardly a Trade-Union Congress meets in which the 
 complaint is not made that prison labour interferes 
 with free labour ; but what sort of outcry would there 
 be if State labour, on an extensive scale, were to enter 
 into serious competition with the individual workman ? 
 
 These schemes for the establishment of State insti- 
 tutions offering work to the indigent will never solve 
 the problem of want, and all attempts that have 
 hitherto been made in that direction have either ended 
 in failure or met with small success. 
 
 The latest of these schemes is a village settlement, 
 which the authorities in New Zealand started some 
 time ago to meet the case of the unemployed. The 
 Government, in the first place, spent £16,000 in mak- 
 ing roads and other conveniences for the settlers, and 
 afterwards advanced £21,000 for building houses, buy- 
 ing implements, and so on. According to recent ad- 
 vices from New Zealand, only £2000 of this advance 
 has been paid back, and it is the general feeling of the 
 colony that the project has proved a failure. These, 
 and other experiments of a similar character, compel 
 us to recognise the disagreeable fact that a certain 
 proportion of people who are in the habit of falling 
 out of work are, as a class, extremely difficult to put 
 properly on their legs. Failure, for some reason or 
 another, always dogs their steps, and the more So- 
 ciety does for them, the less they will be disposed to 
 do anything for themselves. 
 
126 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 When such persons are sent to prison on charges of 
 begging, or petty theft, it very often happens that 
 they are assisted on their release by a Discharged 
 Prisoners' Aid Society. Tools are given them, work 
 is found for them, yet they do not thrive. Not 
 infrequently the job is given up on some frivolous 
 pretext ; or if it is a temporary one, little or no effort 
 is made till it actually comes to an end to look out for 
 another. It is little wonder that men who live in 
 such a fashion should occasionally be destitute ; the 
 only wonder is that they manage to pass through life 
 at all. These men hang upon the skirts of labour 
 and seek shelter under its banner, but it is only for 
 short and irregular intervals that they march in the 
 ranks of the actual workers. The real working man 
 knows such people well, and heartily despises them. 
 
 Would it be a right thing to increase the burdens 
 of the taxpayer by opening State workshops, even if 
 such a plan were feasible, for men of the stamp we 
 have just been describing ? Decidedly it would not. 
 Yet these men form a fair proportion of the persons 
 whom we have classed as driven to crime by economic 
 distress. As far, then, as the criminal population is 
 concerned, no necessity exists for the organisation of 
 State factories ; and so far as destitution is a factor in 
 the production of crime, it can be grappled with by 
 other agencies. In fact, if a graduated system of 
 Unions, with a kind of casual ward, somewhat after the 
 
DESTITUTION AND CRIME. 127 
 
 German Natural verpflegstationen, could be worked 
 and if Trade Societies adopted, under proper pre- 
 cautions, the principle of allowing debilitated members 
 of their trade the opportunity of doing something at 
 a somewhat reduced rate, it would be impossible for 
 any well-intentioned man to say that he was driven 
 to crime from sheer want. It is worth while, on the 
 part of the nation) to make some small sacrifice to 
 attain an object so supremely important as this. It is 
 very probable that hardly any sacrifice will be needed. 
 In any case it would get rid of the uncomfortable 
 feeling entertained by many that there are occasions 
 when human beings are punished who ought to be fed. 
 It would completely alienate all sympathy from crime ; 
 it would then be known that criminal offenders de- 
 served the punishment they received, and justice 
 would be able to deal with them with a firm and even 
 hand. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 POVEETy AND CRIME. 
 
 Having analysed the part played by destitution in 
 tlie production oi' crime, the cognate question of the 
 extent to which poverty is responsible for it will now 
 be considered. If actual destitution does not count 
 for very much in producing criminals, it may be that 
 poverty makes up the difference, and that the great 
 bulk of delinquency, if not the whole of it, arises from 
 the combined operation of these two economic factors. 
 We have examined one of them, let us now go on to 
 the other. As this examination will have to be con- 
 ducted from several different points of view which, 
 for the sake of clearness, it will be expedient to con- 
 sider one by one, I shall begin by inquiring what 
 light international statistics are capable of throwing 
 on the relations between poverty and crime. At the 
 outset of this inquiry we are at once met by the old 
 difficulty respecting the value of international criminal 
 statistics. The imperfection of these statistics is a 
 matter it is always important to bear in mind, but in 
 
 spite of this circumstance the light which they she>l 
 
 128 
 
POVERTY AND CRIME. 129 
 
 on the problem of poverty and crime is not to be re- 
 jected as worthless. 
 
 It has been pointed out in the preceding chapter 
 that the offences people, in a state of destitution, are 
 most likely to commit are beggary and theit. In the 
 case of persons who arc in a state of poverty, but not 
 destitute, it may be said that the offence they are 
 most likely to commit is theft in one or other of its 
 forms. What then are the international statistics of 
 theft, and what is the relative wealth of the several 
 countries from which these statistics are drawn ? An 
 answer to these two questions will throw a flood of 
 light upon the nature of the relations between poverty 
 and crime. If these statistics show that in those 
 countries where there is most poverty there is also 
 most theft, the elucidation of such a fact will at once 
 raise a strong presumption that the connection be- 
 tween poverty and offences against property is one of 
 cause and effect. If, on the other hand, international 
 statistics are not at all conclusive upon this important 
 point, it will show that there are other factors at work 
 besides poverty in the production of offences against 
 property. With these preliminary remarks I shall 
 now append a table of the number of persons tried 
 for theft of all kinds in some of the most important 
 countries of Europe within the last few years. In no 
 two of these countries is theft classified in the 
 
 same manner, but in all of them it is equally recog- 
 
 I 
 
130 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 nised as a crime; if, therefore, all offences against 
 property, of whatever kind, are put together under 
 the common heading of " theft," and if the number of 
 cases of thefts (as thus understood) tried in the various 
 countries of Europe are carefully tabulated, we 
 possess, in such a table, a criterion wherewith to 
 j udge, in a rough way, the respective position of those 
 countries in the matter of offences against property. 
 
 The appended table is extracted from a larger one, 
 the worlj of Sig. L. Bodio, Director- General of Statistics 
 for the kingdom of Italy. The calculations for every 
 country, except Spain, are based on the census of 1880 
 or 1881 ; the calculations for Spain are based on the 
 census of 1877. In all the countries except Germany 
 and Spain the calculations are based on an average of 
 five years ; for Germany and Spain the average is 
 only two years. 
 
 Italy, 1880-4 Annual trials for theft i^er 100,000 inhabitants 221 
 
 France, 1879-83 do. do. 121 
 
 Belgium, 1876-80 do. do. 143 
 
 Germany,1882-3 do. do. 262 
 
 England, 1880-84 do. do. 228 
 
 Scotland, 1880-84 do. do. 289 
 
 Ireland, 1880-84 do. do. 101 
 
 Hungary, 1876-80 do. do. 82 
 
 Spain, 1883-4 do. do. 74 
 
 To what conclusions do the statistics contained in 
 this table point ? It is useless burdening this chapter 
 with additional figure.s to prove that England and 
 
POVERTY AND CRIME. 13I 
 
 France are the two wealthiest countries in Europe. 
 Tiie wealth of England, for instance, is perhaps six 
 times the wealth of Italy ; but, notwithstanding this 
 fact, more thefts are annually committed in England 
 than in Italy. The wealth of France is enormously 
 superior to the wealth of Ireland, both in quantity 
 and distribution, but the population of France com- 
 mits more offences against property than the Irish. 
 Spain is one of the poorest countries in Europe, Scot- 
 land is one of the richest, but side by side with this 
 inequality of wealtli we see that the Scotch commit, 
 per hundred thousand of the population, almost four 
 times as many thefts as the Spaniards. With the ex- 
 ception of Italy it is the poorest countries of Europe 
 that are the least dishonest, and, according to our 
 table, even the Italians are not so much addicted to 
 offences against property as the inhabitants of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Perhaps the most instructive figures in these inter- 
 national statistics are those relating to England and 
 Ireland. The criminal statistics of the two countries 
 are drawn up on veiy much the same principles ; the 
 ordinary criminal law is very much the same, and 
 there is very much the same feeling among the popu- 
 lation with respect to ordinary crime ; in fact, with 
 the exception of agrarian offences, the administration 
 of the law in Ireland is as effective as it is in England. 
 On almost every point the similarity of the criminal 
 
132 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 law and its administration in the two countries 
 almost amounts to identity, and a comparison of their 
 criminal statistics, in so far as they relate to ordinary 
 offences against property, reaches a high level 
 of exactitude. What does such a comparison 
 reveal ? It shows that the Irish, with all their 
 poverty, are not half so much addicted to offences 
 against property as the English with all their wealth, 
 and it serves to confirm the idea that the connection 
 between poverty and theft is not so close as is 
 generally imagined. 
 
 International statistics then, as far as they go, point 
 to the conclusion that it is the growth of wealth, 
 rather than the reverse, which has a tendency to 
 augment the number of offences against property, and 
 national statistics, as far as England is concerned, ex- 
 hibit a similar result. It is perfectly certain, for 
 instance, that the mass of the population possessed a 
 greater amount of money, anil were earning on the 
 whole iiigher wages between 1870-74 than between 
 1884-88. According to the evidence given before the 
 late Lord Iddesleigh's Commission on the depression 
 of trade, the prosperity of the country in the five 
 years ended 1874 was something phenomenal. This 
 was the opinion of almost every class in the com- 
 munity. Chambers of commerce, leading manu- 
 factures, wor-kmen in the various departments of 
 industry, all told the same tale of exceptional com- 
 
 to 
 
POVERTY AND CRIME. 133 
 
 mercial prosperity. During this period it was easy 
 for any person with a pair of hands to get as much as 
 he could do ; workmen were at a premium and wages 
 had i-isen all round. 
 
 But, notwithstanding this state of unwonted pros- 
 perity, we shall find on turning to the statistics of 
 offences against property that a larger number of 
 persons were convicted of such offences in the five 
 years ended 1874 than in the five years ended 1888. 
 It hardly needs to be stated that the five years ended 
 1888 were yearsof considerable depression, some of them 
 were years in which there was a good deal of distress, 
 and in none of them was the bulk of the population 
 so well off as in the preceding period. It is, therefore, 
 plain that an increase in the wealth of a country is 
 not necessarily followed by a decrease in the amount 
 of crimes against property ; that, in fact, the growth 
 of national and individual wealth, unless it is accom- 
 panied by a corresponding development of ethical 
 ideals, is apt to foster criminal instincts instead of re- 
 pressing them. 
 
 If we look at crime in general, instead of that 
 particular form of it which consists in offences against 
 property, it will likewise become apparent that it is 
 not so closely connected with poverty as is generally 
 believed. The accuracy of Indian criminal statistics 
 is a matter that has already been pointed out. When 
 these statistics are placed side by side with our own 
 
134 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 what do we find ? According to the returns for the 
 two countries in the year 1888, it comes out that in 
 England one person was proceeded against criminally 
 to every forty-two of the population, while in India 
 only one person was proceeded against to every 195. 
 In other words, oiScial statistics show that the people 
 of England are between four and five times more 
 addicted to crime than the people of India. On the 
 supposition that poverty is the parent of crime, the 
 population of India should be one of the most lawless 
 in the world, for it is undoubtedly one of the very 
 poorest. The reverse, however, is the case, and 
 India is justly celebrated for the singularly law-abid- 
 ing chaiacter of its inhabitants. In reply to this it 
 may be said that India differs so widely from England 
 in race, manners, religion and social organisation, that 
 all these divergencies must be taken into account 
 when comparing the position of the two countries 
 with respect to crime. A contention of this kind is 
 in perfect harmony with what is here advanced. It 
 is, in fact, a part of our case that crime is either pro- 
 duced or checked by a great many causes besides 
 economic conditions. The compai-ison we are now 
 making between the criminal statistics of England 
 and India is intended to show that economic condi- 
 tions alone will not satisfactorily explain the genesis 
 of crime. If such were the case India would have a 
 blacker criminal record than England, for it has p, 
 
POVERTY AND CRIME. 135 
 
 lower material standard of life ; but as India is able 
 to exhibit a fairer record, in spite of its economic 
 disadvantages, we are compelled to come to the con- 
 clusion that poverty is not the only factor in the 
 production of crime. 
 
 A further illustration of the same fact will be found 
 on examining the Prison Statistics of the United 
 States. According to an instructive paper recently 
 read by Mr. Roland P. Falkner before the American 
 Statistical Association, the foreign born population in 
 America is, on the whole, less inclined to commit 
 crime than the native born American. In some of 
 the States — Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and 
 California — " the foreign born," says Mr. Falkner, 
 " make a worse showing than the native. In a great 
 number of cases, notably Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, 
 and Tennessee, we notice hardly any difference. 
 Elsewhere, the showing is decidedly in favour of the 
 foreign born, and nowhere more strongly than in 
 Wisconsin and Minnesota." It is perfectly certain 
 that the foreign born population of the United States 
 is not, as a rule, so well-off economically as the native 
 born citizen. The vast proportion of the emigrant 
 population is composed of poor people seeking to 
 better their condition, and it is well known that a 
 large percentage of the hard, manual work done in 
 America is performed by those men. The economic 
 condition of the average native born American is 
 
136 CRIME AND ITS CA USES. 
 
 superior to the economic condition of the average 
 emigrant ; but the native American, notwithstanding 
 his economic superiority, cuts a worse figure in the 
 statistics of crime. Tliis is a state of things the 
 Americans themselves are just beginning to perceive, 
 and it cannot fail to make them uneasy as to the 
 efficacy of some of their erratic methods of punishing 
 criftie. It has, until recentl}'-, been the habit of 
 American statisticians to compare the foreign born 
 population with the whole of the native population 
 with respect to crime. The outcome of this method 
 of comparison was taken all round favourable to the 
 born Americans, and for many years people satisfied 
 themselves with the belief that a high percentage of 
 crime in the United States was due to the foreign 
 element in the community. It is now seen that this 
 method of calculation is defective and false. A com- 
 paratively small number of foreigners emigrate to the 
 United States under eighteen years of age ; in order, 
 therefore, to make the comparison between natives 
 and foreigners accurate, it must be made with 
 foreigners over eighteen and Americans over eighteen, 
 for it is after persons pass that age that they are most 
 prone to commit crime. The result of this new and 
 more correct method of comparison has been to show 
 that the native American element, that is to say, the 
 element best situated economically, is also the element 
 which perpetrates most crinjes. Such a result is only 
 
POVERTY AND CRIME. 137 
 
 another illustration of the truth that an advanced 
 state of economic well-being is not necessarily accom- 
 panied by greater immunity from crime. 
 
 A further illustration of this significant truth is 
 to be witnessed in the Antipodes. In no quarter of 
 the world is there such wide-spread prosperity as 
 exists in the colony of Victoria. All writers and 
 travellers are unanimous upon this point. Nowhere 
 in the world is there less economic excuse for the 
 perpetration of crime. Work of one kind or another 
 can almost alwaj^s be had in that favoured portion of 
 the globe. 
 
 Even in the worst of times, if men are willing to go 
 " up country," as it is called, occupation of some sort is 
 certain to be found, and trade depression never reaches 
 the acute point which it sometimes does at home. 
 
 Nevertheless, on examining the criminal statistics of 
 the colony of Victoria, what do we find ? According 
 to the returns for 1887, one arrest on a charge of crime 
 was made in every 30 of the population, and on looking 
 down the list of offences for which these arrests were 
 made, it will be seen that Victoria, notwithstanding 
 her widely-difi'osed material well-being, is just as much 
 addicted to crimes against person and property as some 
 of the poor and squalid States of Europe. It may be 
 said in extenuation of this condition of things, that 
 Victoria contains a larger grown-up population, and 
 therefore a larger percentage of persons in a position 
 
138 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 to commit crime than is to be foimd in older countries, 
 Tliis is, to a certain extent, true, but the difference is 
 not so great as miglit at first sight be supposed. 
 Assuming that the criminal age lies between 15 and 
 CO, we find that in the seven Australasian colonies 
 563 persons out of every 1,000 are alive between these 
 two ages. In Great Britian and Ireland 559 persons 
 per 1,000 are alive between 15 and 60. According to 
 these figures the difference between the population 
 within the criminal age in the colony, as compai'ed 
 with the mother country, is very small, and is quite 
 insufficient to account for the relatively high percent- 
 age of crime exhibited by the Victorian criminal 
 statistics. 
 
 All these considerations force us back to the con- 
 clusion that an abundant measure of material well- 
 being has a much smaller influence in diminishing 
 crime than is usually supposed, and compels us to 
 admit that much crime would still exist even if the 
 world were turned into a paradise of material pros- 
 perity to-morrow. 
 
 In further confirmation of this conclusion let us 
 glance for a moment at another aspect of the relations 
 between poverty and crime. It is generally calculated 
 that the working class population of England and 
 Wales form from 90 to 95 per cent, of the total popu- 
 lation of the country. According to the investigations 
 of Mr. Charles Booth, as contained in his work on East 
 
POVERTY AND CRIME. 139 
 
 London, the working classes constitute about 92 per 
 cent, in the districts he had under examination, the 
 remaining 8 per cent, being made up of the lower 
 and upper middle classes. Let us therefore assume 
 that 10 per cent, of the population consists of the 
 middle and upper classes, and that the other 90 per 
 cent, of the community is composed of working 
 people. Many statisticians will not admit that the 
 middle and upper classes form 10 per cent, of the 
 nation, and assert that 5 per cent, is nearer the 
 mark. This is also my own view, but for the purposes 
 of this inquiry we shall assume that it is 10 per cent. 
 How large a proportion of the criminal population is 
 made up of the middle and upper classes? An answer 
 to this question would at once show the exact relation 
 between poverty'' and crime. If it could be shown 
 that the well-to-do classes, in proportion to their 
 numbers, are just as much addicted to the commission 
 of criminal acts as the poorer people, it would demon- 
 strate that crime prevailed to an equal extent among 
 all sections of the community, and was not the work 
 of one class alone. Unfortunately, such statistics are 
 not to be had. But, as the facts are not to be got at 
 directly, this does not mean to say that it is impossible 
 to catch a glimpse of what they are. This may be 
 done in the following manner : — According to the 
 report of the Prison Commissioners, between 5 and 6 
 per cent, of the persons committed to gaol during the 
 
140 CRIME AND ITS CA USES. 
 
 year ended March, 1890 (omitting court-martial cases), 
 were debtors and civil process cases. Now, it may be 
 taken as certain that in a very small proportion of 
 these cases were the prisoners working people. Nearly 
 all these offenders are to l)e considered as belonging to 
 the well-to-do classes. Yet we see that they form 5 
 per cent, of the criminal population, and it has to be 
 remembered that the fraudulent debtor is just as much 
 a criminal, nay, even a worse criminal in many 
 instances than the thief who snatches a purse. In 
 addition to this 5 per cent, there is at least 3 per cent, 
 of the ordinary criminal population belonging to the 
 higher ranks of life. At the lowest estimate we have 
 6 per cent, of the criminal population springing from 
 the midst of the well-to-do, and if all cases of drunken- 
 ness and assault were punisiied with imprisonment 
 instead of a fine, it would be found that the well-to- 
 do showed just as badly in the statistics of crime as 
 their poorer neighbours. 
 
 In making this statement with respect to fines, I do 
 not wish it to be understood that all cases of drunken- 
 ness and assault should be followed by imprisonment. 
 On the contrary, it is a great mistake to send anyone 
 to gaol if it can possibly be avoided, and imprison- 
 ment should never be resorted to so long as any other 
 form of punishment will serve the purpose. What is 
 here stated is merely meant to bring out the fact that 
 the proportion of well-to-do among the prison popula- 
 
POVERTY AND CRIME. 14I 
 
 tioQ does not accurately represent the proportion of 
 offences committed by that class; and it does not 
 represent it for the simple reason that the well-to-do 
 have facilities for escaping imprisonment which the ill- 
 to-do have not. When a man with a certain command 
 of means is involved in criminal proceedings, he has 
 always the assistance of experienced counsel to defend 
 him, he is always able to secure the attendance of 
 witnesses,^ if he has any, and should the offence be of 
 a nature that a fine will condone, he is always able to 
 escape imprisonment by paying it. Ifc very often 
 happens that poor people are unable to secure these 
 advantages in a court of justice, and prison statistics 
 of the different classes, even if we had them, would, for 
 the reasons we have just mentioned, always give the 
 working classes more than their fair share of offenders. 
 It has always to be borne in mind in making cal- 
 culations respecting the proportion of criminal 
 offenders among the various sections of the community 
 that there is a population of habitual criminals which 
 forms a class by itself. Habitual criminals are not to 
 
 1 A case was tried in London a short time ago which illus- 
 trates the difficulties in the way of poor people, so far as the 
 attejidance of witnesses is concerned. In this case the witness 
 appeared five successive days in court waiting for the trial to 
 come on. Not being paid by the defendant, this witness was 
 unable to appear the sixth day. On that day the case was at 
 last called, the prisoner had now no witness and was, of course, 
 convicted. 
 
142 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 be confounded with the working or any other class ; 
 they are a set of persons who make crime the object 
 and business of their lives ; to commit crime is their 
 trade ; they deliberately scoff at honest ways of earn- 
 ing a living, and must accordingly be looked upon> as 
 a class of a separate and distinct character from the 
 rest of the community. According to police estimates 
 this class consists of between 50,000 and 60,000 persons 
 in England and Wales. Notwithstanding the small- 
 ness of its numbers, this criminal population contri- 
 butes a proportion amounting to fully 12 per cent, to 
 the local and convict prisons of England. As this 
 percentage of the prison population is recruited from 
 wholly criminal ground, it is important to place it in 
 a distinct and separate category when forming an 
 estimate of the criminal tendencies of the several 
 branches of the population. This is what has been 
 done in the subjoined table. This table will accord- 
 ingly show, first the proportion of the poorer class to 
 the total population, and next their proportion to the 
 prison population. It will do the same for the well- 
 to-do class, and will finally give the percentage of the 
 criminal class in the local and convict prisons : — 
 
 Proportion of working class to total population 90 j). ct. 
 
 Proportion of prisoners from this class - 82 p. ct. 
 
 Pi'oportion of well-to-do to population 10 p. ct. 
 
 Proportion of prisoners from this class C p. ct. 
 
 Numbers of criminal class, say 60,000 4-4 ' ''" 
 
 Proportion of jwisoners from this class 12 p. ct. 
 
POVERTY AND CRIME. 143 
 
 According to these figures, tlie well-to-do contribute 
 less than their proper proportion to the prison popula- 
 tion. This arises, as has already been stated, from the 
 fact that this class has so many more facilities for 
 escaping the penalty of imprisonment ; the difference 
 would be adjusted if the cases tried before the criminal 
 courts were taken as a standard. An examination of 
 these cases would undoubtedly show that each class 
 was represented in proportion to its numbers. 
 
 According to Garofalo, one of the most learned of 
 Italian jurists, the poor people in Italy commit fewer 
 offences against property, in proportion to their 
 numbers, than the well-to-do, while in Prussia persons 
 engaged in the liberal professions contribute twice 
 their proper share to the criminal population. A 
 somewhat similar state of things exists in France; 
 there the number of persons engaged in the liberal 
 professions forms four per cent, of the population ; 
 but, according to the investigations of Ferri, in his 
 striking little book, " Socialismo e Criminalita," the 
 liberal professions were responsible for no less than 
 seven per cent, of the murders perpetrated in France 
 in 1879. 
 
 What is the period of the year we should expect 
 most crime to be committed if poverty is at the root 
 of it? In this country, at least, it is very well known 
 that the labouring classes are apt to suffer most in 
 
 the depth of winter, and the depth of winter may be 
 
144 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 said to correspond with tlie months of December, 
 January, and February. It is in these months that 
 all outdoor occupations come to a comparative stand- 
 still ; it is then that the poorest section of the popula- 
 tion — the men without a trade, the men who live by 
 mere manual labour — are reduced to the greatest 
 straits. In the winter months some of these men 
 have to pass through a period of real hardship ; the 
 state of the weatlier often puts an absolute stop to 
 all outdoor occupations^ and when this is the case, it 
 takes an outdoor labourer all his might to provide 
 the barest necessaries for his home. In addition to 
 this difEculty, which lies in the nature of his calling, 
 a labourer finds the expense of living a good deal 
 higher in the depth of winter. He has to burn more 
 fuel, he has to supply his children with warmer cloth- 
 ing, in a variety of ways his expenses increase, not- 
 withstanding the most rigid economy. Winter is not 
 only a harder season for the outdoor labourer, it is a 
 time of greater economic trial for the whole working- 
 class population. This, I think, is a statement which 
 will be universally admitted. 
 
 On the assumption tiiat poverty is the principal 
 source of crime we ought to have a much larger prison 
 population in the depth of winter than at any other 
 period of the year. The prison statistics for Decem- 
 ber, January, and February — the three most inclement 
 iQonths, the three months when expenses are greatest 
 
POVERTY AND CRIME. 145 
 
 and work scarcest — should be the highest in the 
 whole year. As a matter of fact, it is during these 
 three months that there are fewest people in prison. 
 According to an excellent return, issued for the first 
 time by the Prison Commissioners in their thirteenth 
 report, it appears that there was a considerably 
 smaller number of prisoners in the local prisons of 
 England and Wales in the winter months — December, 
 January and February, 1889-90 — than at any other 
 season of the year.^ And this is not an isolated fact. 
 A glance at the criminal returns for a series of years 
 will at once show that crime is highest in summer 
 and autumn — a time when occupation of all kinds, 
 and especially occupation for the poorest members of 
 the community, is most easily obtained — and lowest 
 in winter and spring, when economic conditions are 
 most adverse.^ 
 
 All these facts, instead of pointing to poverty as the 
 main cause of crime, point the other way. It is a 
 curious sign of the times that this statement should 
 meet with so much incredulity. It has been reserved 
 for this generation to propagate the absurdity that 
 
 ^ See Appendix, iii. 
 
 2 Scotch statistics are in harmony with Enghsh. For the 
 year ended March, 1890, the number of ordinary prisoners in 
 custody in Scotland was lowest in December, January and 
 February. It was highest in July, August, September. Crime 
 was also highest when pauperism was lovvest. See 12th Report 
 of Scotch Prison Commissioners. 
 
 K 
 
146 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 the want of money is the root of all evil ; all the 
 wisest teachers of mankind have hitherto been dis- 
 posed to think differently, and criminal statistics are 
 far from demonstrating that they are wrong. In the 
 laudable efforts which are now being made, and 
 which ought to be made to heighten the material 
 well-being of the community, it is a mistake to 
 assume, as is too often done, that mere material pros- 
 perity, even if spread over the whole population, will 
 ever succeed in banishing crime. A mere increase of 
 material prosperity generates as many evils as it 
 desti'oys ; it may diminish offences against property, 
 but it augments offences against the person, and 
 multiplies drunkenness to an alarming extent. While 
 it is an undoubted fact that material wretchedness 
 has a debasing effect both morally and physically, it 
 is also equally true that the same results are some- 
 times found to flow from an increase of economic 
 well-being. An interesting proof of this is to be 
 found in the recent investigations of M. Chopinet, a 
 French military surgeon, respecting the stature of the 
 population in the central Pyrenees. M. Chopinet, 
 after a careful examination of the conscript registers 
 from 1873 to 1888, arrives at the following conclusions 
 as to what determines the physical condition of the 
 population. After discussing the cosmical influences 
 and the evil effects of poverty and bad hygienic 
 arrangements on the people, he proceeds to point out 
 
POVERTY AND CRIME. 147 
 
 that moral corruption arising from material pros- 
 perity is also a powerful factor in producing physical 
 degeneracy. He singles out one canton — the canton 
 of Luchon — as being the victim of its own prosperity. 
 In this canton, he says, that the old simplicity of life 
 has departed, in consequence of its prodigious pros- 
 perity. "Vices formerly unknown have penetrated 
 into the country ; the frequenting of public houses 
 and the habit of keeping late hours have taken the 
 place of the open air sports wliich used to be the 
 favoured method of enjoyment. Illegitimate births, 
 formerly very rare, have multiplied, syphilis even has 
 spread among the young. Food of a less substantial 
 character has superseded the diet of former times, 
 and, in short, alcoholism, precocious debauchery, and 
 syphilis have come like so many plagues to arrest the 
 development of the youth and seriously debilitate the 
 population." ^ 
 
 Facts such as these should serve to remind us that 
 the growth of wealth may be accompanied, and is ac- 
 companied, by degeneracy of the worst character 
 unless there is a corresponding growth of the moral 
 sentiments of the community. " The perfection of 
 man," says M. de Laveleye, " consists in the full devel- 
 opment of all his forces, physical as well as intel- 
 lectual, and of all his sentiments ; in the feeling of 
 affection for the family and humanity; in a feeling 
 1 Rexut Scientifique, September 13, 1890. 
 
148 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 for the beautiful in nature and art." It is in propor- 
 tion as men strive after this ideal that crime wil 
 decay, and material prosperity only becomes a good 
 when it is used as a means to this supreme end. 
 Otherwise, the mere growth of wealth, be it ever so 
 widely diffused, will deprave the world instead of 
 elevating it. The mere possession of wealth is not a 
 moralising agent; as Professor Marshall^ truly tells 
 us, " Money is general purchasing powez", and is sought 
 as a means to all kinds of ends, high as well as low, 
 spiritual as well as material." According to this de- 
 finition, money may as readily become a source of mis- 
 chief as an instrument for gooil ; its wider diffusion 
 among the community has, therefore, a mixed effect, 
 and it works for evil or for good, according to the 
 character of the individual. It is only when the chai'- 
 acter is disciplined by the habitual exercise of self- 
 restraint, and ennobled by a generous devotion to the 
 higher aims of life, that money becomes a real blessing 
 to its possessor. If, on the other hand, money has 
 merely the effect of making the well-to-do rich, and 
 the poor well-to-do, it will never diminish crime ; it 
 will merely cause crime to modify its present forms. 
 Such, at least, is the conclusion to which a considera- 
 tion of the contents of this chapter would seem to 
 lead. 
 
 ■^ Principles of Economics, p. 81, 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CRIME IN RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. 
 
 In the present chapter we shall proceed to discuss 
 the effect exercised by two characteristics of a dis- 
 tinctly personal nature in the production of crime, 
 namely, age and sex. 
 
 As sex is the most fundamental of all human dis- 
 tinctions we shall begin by considering the part it 
 plays among criminal phenomena. According to the 
 judicial statistics of all civilised peoples, women are 
 less addicted to crime than men, and boys are more 
 addicted to crime than girls. Among most European 
 peoples between five and six males are tried for offences 
 against the law to every one female. In the southern 
 counties of Europe, females form a smaller proportion 
 of the criminal population than in the northern. This 
 circumstance may be accounted for in several ways. 
 In the first place, it may be the case that women in 
 the south of Europe are better morally than in the 
 north ; it may be that the social conditions of their 
 existence shield them from crime; or it may be that 
 
 the crimes men are most prone to commit in the south 
 
 149 
 
150 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 are of such a nature that women are more or less in- 
 capable of perpetrating them. It is perfectly well 
 known that in the south of Europe women lead more 
 secluded lives than is the case in the north ; they are 
 much less immersed in the whirl and movement of life ; 
 it is not surprising, therefore, to find that they are less 
 addicted to crime. Nor is this all. The crimes com- 
 uiitted in the South consist to a large extent of offences 
 against theperson ; physical weakness in a multitude of 
 cases prevents women from committing such crimes. 
 la the North, on the other hand, a large proportion 
 of crimes are in the nature of thefts and offences 
 against property. Most of these crimes women can 
 commit with comparative ease ; the result is that they 
 form a larger proportion of the criminal population. 
 Assaults are oft'ences women are less capable of com- 
 mitting than men ; hence, if we find that the crime of 
 a country consists largely of personal violence, we 
 shall also find that the percentage of female criminals 
 will be relatively small. In Italy, where offences 
 against the person are so prevalent, females only form 
 about nine per cent, of the criminal population ; in 
 England where personal violence is seldom resorted to 
 females form between 17 and 18 per cent, of the per- 
 sons proceeded against, and about 15 per cent, of the 
 numbers convicted. 
 
 A consideration of these circumstances tends to 
 show that although southern women commit fewer 
 
CRIME IN RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. 151 
 
 crimes in proportion to men than northern women, 
 this fact is partly owing to the character of the crime. 
 But it is also owing to more secluded habits of life, 
 and to the freedom from moral contamination of a 
 criminal nature which these habits secure. 
 
 Proceeding from quantity to quality we find that 
 although females commit much fewer crimes in pro- 
 portion than males, the offences they do commit are 
 frequently of a more serious nature than the crimes 
 to which men are addicted. According to the 
 investigations of Guerry and Quetelet, women in 
 France commit more crimes of infanticide, abortion 
 poisoning, and domestic theft than men. They are 
 addicted equally with men to the perpetration of 
 parricide, and are more frequently convicted than men 
 for the ill-treatment of children. English criminal 
 statistics also show that the proportion of women to 
 men rises with the seriousness of the offence. The 
 proportion of women to men summarily proceeded 
 against .is 17 per cent., the proportion proceeded 
 against for murder and attempts to murder is as high 
 as 36 per cent. Women are also more hardened 
 criminals than men. According to the statistics of 
 English prisons, women who have been once convicted 
 are much more likely to be reconvicted than men,^ and 
 
 1 In 1889-90 the recommitted males were 44'3 per cent, of the 
 total number of malea committed (exclusive of debtors and 
 naval and military offenders); the recommitted females 65 "8 
 
152 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 the prison I'eturns of Continental countries tell the 
 same tale. 
 
 The facts relating to female crime having been 
 stated, it will now be our business to inquire why 
 women, on the whole, commit fewer crimes than men. 
 Tlie most obvious answer is that they are better 
 morally. The care and nurture of children has been 
 their lot in life for untold centuries ; the duties of 
 maternity have perpetually kept alive a certain 
 number of unselfish instincts ; these instincts have 
 become part and parcel of woman's natural inheritance, 
 and, as a result of possessing them to a larger extent 
 than man, she is less disposed to crime. It is very 
 probable that there is an element of truth in the idea 
 that the care of offspring has had a moralising effect 
 upon women, and that this effect has acquired the 
 power of a hereditary characteristic ; at the same time, 
 it must be remembered that other causes are also in 
 operation which prevent women figuring as largely in 
 criminal returns as men. 
 
 Among the most prominent of these causes is the 
 want of physical power. In all crimes requiring a 
 certain amount of brute strength, such as burglaiy, 
 robbery with violence, and so on, the proportion of 
 women to men is small. A woman very rarely pos- 
 sesses the animal force requisite for the perpetration 
 
 per cent, of the total number of females committed exclusive of 
 of debtors. 
 
CRIME IN RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. 153 
 
 of crimes accompanied with much personal violence. 
 But where the element of personal violence does not 
 come conspicuously to the front the proportion of 
 female criminals to male immediately rises, and iu 
 such crimes as poisoning, child murder, abortion, 
 domestic theft, women are more criminally disposed 
 than men. Undoubtedly the lack of power has as 
 much to do with keeping down female crime as the 
 want of will. This is especially manifest in the crime 
 of infanticide. For the perpetration of this crime 
 women possess the power, and the vast number of 
 women convicted of this offence in proportion to men 
 is ample proof that they often possess the will. Of 
 course the temptation to women to commit this kind 
 of crime is often extreme ; it is the product, in many 
 instances, of an overwhelming sense of shame; and 
 the perpetrators of infanticide are often far from 
 being the most debased of their sex. Still, the pre- 
 valence of infanticide among women is an evidence 
 that, where the temptation is strong and the power 
 sufficient, women are just as criminally inclined as 
 men. 
 
 It has also to be borne in mind that women are 
 very frequently the instigators of crime and escape 
 punishment because they are not actually engaged in 
 its commission. In almost all cases where robberies 
 are committed by a pack of thieves, a part of the pre- 
 paratory arrangements is entrusted to women, and 
 
154 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 women lend a helping hand in disposing of the spoil. 
 It is the men, as a rule, who receive all the punish- 
 ment, but the guilt of both sexes is very much the 
 same. In many cases of forgery and fraudulent 
 bankruptcy among the well-to-do classes, for which 
 men only are punished, the guilt of women is equally 
 great. Household extravagance, extravagance in 
 dress, the mad ambition of many English women to 
 live in what they call "better style" than their 
 neighbours sends not a few men to penal servitude. 
 The proportion of female crime in a community is also 
 to a very considerable extent determined by the social 
 condition of women. In all countries where social 
 habits and customs constrain women to lead retiring 
 and secluded lives the number of female criminals 
 descends to a minimum. The small amount of female 
 crime in Greece ^ is an instance of this law. On the 
 other hand, in all countries where women are ac- 
 customed to share largely the active work of life with 
 men, female crime has a distinct tendency to reach its 
 maximum. An instance of this is the high percentage 
 of female crime in Scotland. According to the 
 Judicial Statistics for the year 1888 no less than 37 
 per cent, of the cases tried before the Scotch courts 
 
 ^ According to prison statistics of tlie Greek Government for 
 1889, out of a total prison population of 5,023 only 50 were 
 women. See Bevida de Discipline. Carcerarie, Nov. 30th, 1890, 
 page 067. 
 
CRIME IN RELATION TO SEX A^D AGE. 155 
 
 consisted of offences committed by women. It is true 
 only 11 per cent, of these offences were of a serious 
 nature — the remainder being more or less trivial, but, 
 even after taking this circumstance into consideration, 
 the unwelcome fact remains that Scotch women 
 commit a higher percentage of crimes in proportion to 
 men than the female population of any other country 
 in Europe. The proportion of English female offenders 
 to male is not half so high ; it was only 17 per cent, 
 in 1888, and is showing a tendency to decrease, being 
 as high as 20 per cent, for the twenty years ended 
 1876. The proportion of female offenders in Scotland 
 to the total criminal population is moving in an 
 opposite direction. The late Professor Leone Levi, in 
 a paper read before the Statistical Society in 1880, 
 stated that Scotch women formed 27 per cent, of the 
 persons tried before the criminal courts ; they now 
 form 37 per cent., a most alarming rate of increase. 
 
 It hardly admits of doubt that the high ratio of 
 female crime in Scotland is to be attributed to the 
 social status of women. In no other country of 
 Europe do women perform so much heavy manual 
 work ; working in the fields and factories along with 
 men; depending little upon men for their subsistence; 
 in all economic matters leading what is called a more 
 emancipated life than women do elsewhere ; in short, 
 resembling man in their social activities, they also 
 resemble him in criminal proclivities. Scotch criminal 
 
156 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 statistics are thus a striking confirmation of the 
 general law revealed by the study of criminal statistics 
 as a whole ; namely, that the more women are driven 
 to enter upon the economic struggle for life the more 
 criminal they will become. This is not a very con- 
 soling outlook for the future of society. It is not 
 consoling, for the simple reason that the whole drift 
 of opinion at the present time is in the direction of 
 opening out industrial and public life to women to 
 the utmost extent possible. In so far as public 
 opinion is favouring the growth of female political 
 leagues and other female organisations of a distinctly 
 militant character, it is undoubtedly tending on the 
 whole to lower the moral nature of women. The 
 combative attitude required to be maintained by all 
 members of such organisations is injurious to the 
 higher instincts of women, and in numbers of cases 
 must affect their moral tone. The amount of mischief 
 done by these public organisations for piu-poses of 
 political combat is not confined to women alone. The 
 overwhelming influence exercised by mothers on tlio 
 minds of children is notorious ; and that influence is 
 not so likely to be for good where the mother's mind 
 is contaminated by a knowledge of, and sometimes by 
 practising, the shady tricks of electioneering. 
 
 The present tendency to create a greater number of 
 openings in trade and industry for women is not to 
 be dismissed as pernicious because of its evil effect in 
 
CRIME IN RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. 157 
 
 multiplying female crime. After all, an enlarged in- 
 dustrial career for women may be the lesser of two 
 evils. According to the present industrial constitu- 
 tion of society a very large number of females must 
 earn a living in the sweat of their brow, and until some 
 higher social development supersedes the existing 
 order of things it is only right that as wide a career 
 as possible should be opened out for the activities of 
 women who must work to live. At the same time it 
 would be an infinitely superior state of things if 
 society did not require women's work beyond the 
 confines of the home and the primary school. In 
 these two spheres there is ample occupation of the 
 very highest character for the energies of women ; in 
 them their work is immeasurably superior to men's ; 
 and it is because the work required in the home and 
 the school is at the present moment so improperly 
 performed that our existing civilisation is such a 
 hot-bed of physical degeneracy, pauperism, and crime. 
 One thing at least is certain, that crime will never 
 permanently decrease till the material conditions of 
 existence are such that women will not be called u]Don 
 to fight the battle of life as men are, but will be able 
 to concentrate their influence on the nurture and 
 education of the young, after having themselves been 
 educated mainly with a view to that great end. 
 European society at the present moment is movino- 
 away frum this ideal of woman's functions in the 
 
158 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 world ; she is getting to be regarded in the light of a 
 mere intellectual or industrial unit ; and the flower of 
 womankind is being more and more drafted into com- 
 mercial and other enterprises. Some affect to look 
 upon this condition of things as being in the line of 
 progress ; it may be, and to all appearance is, in the 
 line of material necessity, but it is unquestionably 
 opposed to the moral interests of the community 
 These interests demand that women shoiild not be 
 debased, as criminal statistics prove that they arc 
 by active participation in modern industrialism ; they 
 demand that the all-important duties of motherhood 
 sliould be in the hands of persons capable of fulfilling 
 them worthily, and not in the hands of persons whose 
 previous occupations have often rendered them unfit 
 for being a centre of grace and purity in the home. 
 It cannot be too emphatically insisted on that the 
 home is the great school for the formation of char- 
 acter among the young, and it is on character that 
 conduct depends. In proportion as this school of 
 character is improved, in the same proportion will 
 crime decrease. But how is it to be improved when 
 the tendencies of industrialism are to degrade the 
 women who stand by nature at the head of it? In- 
 different mothers cannot make children good citizens ; 
 and the present course of things industrial is slowly 
 but surely tending to debase the fountain head of the 
 race. At the International Conference concerning the 
 
CRIME IN RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. 159 
 
 regulation of labour held recently at Berlin, M. Jules 
 Simon, at tbe close of an excellent speech to the 
 delegates, pointed out the remedy for the present con- 
 dition of things. "You will pardon me," he said, "for 
 concluding my observations with a personal remark, 
 which is perhaps authorised by a past entirely con- 
 secrated to a defence of the cause which brines us 
 here. The object we are aiming at is moral as well 
 as material ; it is not only in the physical interests of 
 the human race that we are endeavouring to rescue 
 children, youths, and women from excessive toil ; we 
 are also labouring to restore woman to the home, the 
 child to its mother, for it is from her only that those 
 lessons of affection and respect which make the good 
 citizen can be learned. We wish to call a halt in the 
 path of demoralisation down which the loosening of 
 the family tie is leading the human mind." 
 
 Passing from the question of sex and crime we shall 
 now consider the proportions which crime bears to 
 age. According to the calculations of the late Mr. 
 Clay, chaplain of Preston prison, the pi-actice of dis- 
 honesty among persons, who afterwards find their way 
 into prisons, begins at a very early age. In a com- 
 munication addressed to Lord Shaftesbury, in 1853, he 
 said that 68 per cent, of criminals were dishonest under 
 1 5 years of age ; 14 per cent, became dishonest between 
 15 and 16 ; 8 per cent, became dishonest between 17 
 
 and 19 ; p,Q per cent, became dishonest under 20. 
 ^0 
 
i6o 
 
 CRIME AND ITS CA USES. 
 
 I have little doubt that these proportions are still in 
 the main correct, and that the criminal instinct begins 
 to show itself at a very early period in life. In 
 Staffordshire " it is an ascertained fact, that there is 
 scarcely an habitual criminal in the county who has 
 not been imprisoned as a child." ^ But it is after 
 the age of twenty has been reached that the 
 criminalit}^ of a people attains its highest point. 
 A glance at the subjoined table will make this 
 clear : — 
 
 Population of England and 
 
 Prisoners 
 
 in Local Gaols 
 
 Wales in 1871— 
 
 
 in 
 
 18^^,8— 
 
 
 Under 5 
 
 13-52 
 
 Under 
 
 12 
 
 
 0-1 
 
 5 and under 15 22 '58 
 
 12 and under 16 
 
 2-8 
 
 15 „ 
 
 20 9-59 
 
 16 
 
 
 21 
 
 16-1 
 
 20 
 
 30 16-66 
 
 21 
 
 
 30 
 
 30-2 
 
 30 
 
 40 12-80 
 
 30 
 
 
 40 
 
 24-3 
 
 40 „ 
 
 60 10-05 
 
 40 
 
 
 50 
 
 14-7 
 
 50 
 
 60 7-32 
 
 50 
 
 
 60 
 
 6-4 
 
 60 and upwards 7 '48 
 
 60 and 
 
 upwards 
 
 5-4 
 
 These figures show that in proportion to the popula- 
 tion, crime is, as we should expect, at its lowest level 
 from infancy till the age of sixteen. From that age 
 it goes on steadily increasing in volume till it reaches 
 a maximum between thirty and forty. After forty 
 has been passed the criminal population begins 
 rapidly to descend, but never touches the same low 
 point in old age as in early youth. 
 
 Females do not enter upon a criminal career so 
 
 1 Beformatory and Befnge Journal, July, 1890. 
 
CRIME IN RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. i6i 
 
 early in life as males ; ^ in the year 1888, while 20 per 
 cent, of the maie population of our local prisons in 
 England and Wales were under 21, only 12 per 
 cent, of the female prison population were under 
 that age. On the other hand, women between 21 and 
 50, form a larger proportion of the female prison popu- 
 lation, than men between the same ages do of thoi 
 male prison population. The criminal age among v 
 women is later in its commencement, and earlier in ) 
 coming to a close than in the case of men. It is \ 
 later in commencing because of the greater care and 
 watchfulness exercised over girls than boys ; but 
 it is more persistent while it lasts, because a plunge 
 into crime is a more irreparable thing in a woman 
 than in a man. A woman's past has a far worse 
 effect on her future than a man's. She incurs a far 
 graver degree of odium from her own sex ; it is much 
 more difficult for her to get into the way of earning 
 
 ^Ages and proportion per cent, of males and females com- 
 mitted in 1889-90. 
 Ages Males Females 
 
 Under 12 years 0-2 
 
 12 years and under 16 3'1 1 
 
 16 years and under 21 - 17 '5 10 
 
 21 years and under 30 28-4 31 
 
 30 years and under 40 23-9 28 
 
 40 years and under 50 14 '2 17 
 
 50 years and under 60 - 6 '4 6 
 
 60 years and above 6 2 3 
 
 Age not ascertained - _0J_ 
 
1 62 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 an honest livelihood, and a woman who has once been 
 shut up within bolts and bars is much more likely to 
 be irretrievably lost than a man. If it is important 
 to keep men as much as possible out of prison, it is 
 doubly necessary to keep out women ; but it is, at the 
 same time, a much harder thing to accomplish. This 
 arises from the fact that the great bulk of female 
 offenders enter the criminal arena after the ao-e of 
 twenty-one, and can only be dealt with by a sentence 
 of imprisonment. If females began crime at an earlier 
 period of life, it would be possible to send them to 
 Reformatories or Industrial Schools, and a fair hope 
 of ultimately saving them would still remain ; but as 
 this is impossible with grown-up persons, prison is the 
 only alternative, and it is after imprisonment is over 
 that a woman begins to recognise the terrible social 
 penalties it has invo ved. 
 
 The proportion of offenders under sixteen years of 
 age to the total local prison population of England 
 and Wales, has decreased in a remarkable way witliin 
 the last twenty or thirty years. The proportion of 
 offenders under sixteen committed to prison between 
 1857-66, amounted to six and three-quarters per cent, 
 of the prison population, and if we go back behind that 
 period it was higher still. In fact, during the first 
 quarter of the present century, the extent and ramifi- 
 cations of juvenile crime had almost reduced statesmen 
 to despair. But the spread of the Reformatory system 
 
CRIME IN RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. 163 
 
 and the introduction more recently of Industrial and 
 Truant Schools for children who have just drifted, or 
 are fast drifting, into criminal courses, has had a re- 
 markable effect in diminishing the juvenile population 
 of our prisons. At the present time the proportion 
 of juveniles under sixteen to the rest of the local 
 prison population is only a little over two per cent., 
 and it is not likely that it will ever reach a higher 
 figure. It might easily be reduced almost to zero if 
 children destined for Reformatories were sent off to 
 these institutions at once, instead of being detained 
 for a month or so in prison till a suitable school is 
 found for them. Some persqns object to the idea of 
 sending children to Reformatories at once, on the 
 ground that to abolish the terror of imprisonment 
 from the youthful mind would embolden the juvenile 
 inclined to crime and lead him more readily to commit it. 
 Others object on the ground that it is only right the 
 child should be punished for his offence. In answer 
 to the last objection, it may pertinently be said that a 
 sentence of three or four years to a Reformatory is 
 surely sufficient punishment for offences usually 
 committed by small boys. With regard to the first 
 objection, our own experience is that tlie ordinary 
 juvenile is much more afraid of the policeman than of 
 the prison, and that the fear of being caught would 
 operate just as strongly upon him if he were sent 
 straight to the Reformatory as it does now. The 
 
164 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 evils connected \\'itli the present system of sending 
 children destined for Reformatories to prison are of 
 two kinds. At the present time many magistrates 
 will not send children to Reformatories who sorely 
 need the restraints of such an institution, because they 
 know it involves a period of preliminary imprison- 
 ment before they can get there. Secondly, it enables 
 a lad to know what the inside of a prison really is. 
 On these two points let me quote the words of an ex- 
 perienced magistrate. " I have many times," said Mr- 
 Wliitwell, at the fourth Reformatory Conference, 
 " when having to deal with young people, felt it very 
 desirable to send them to a Reformator}', but have 
 shrunk from it because we are obliged to send 
 them to prison first. I think it should be left to 
 the discretion of the magistrates and not made 
 compulsory. I feel very strongly indeed that it 
 is most desirable to keep tlie child from knowino- 
 what the inside of a prison is. Let them think it 
 i something awful to look forward to. When they 
 ' have been in the prison they are of opinion that 
 .it is not such a very bad place after all, and 
 [they are not afraid of going there again; but 
 ,if they are sent to a Reformatory and told that 
 ;' they will be sent to a prison if they do not reform 
 they will think it an awful place." These are wise 
 words. It is impossible to make imprisonment such 
 a severe discipline for children as it is for grown- 
 
CRIME IM RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. 165 
 
 up men and women, and as it is not so severe, children 
 leave our gaols with a false impression on their minds. 
 The terror of being imprisoned has, to a large extent, 
 departed ; they think they know the worst and cease 
 to be much afraid of what the law can do. Hence 
 the fact that society has less chance of reclaiming a 
 child who has been imprisoned than it has of reclaim- 
 ing one who has not undergone that form of punish- 
 ment although he has committed precisely the same 
 offence. In England, many authorities on Reformatory 
 Schools are strongly in favour of retaining preliminary 
 imprisonment for Reformatory children ; jn Scotland, 
 experienced opinion is decisively on the other side. 
 On this point the Scotch are undoubtedly in the right. 
 The working of prison systems, whether at home or 
 abroad, teaches us that any person, be he child or man, 
 who has once been in prison, is much more likely to 
 come back than a person who, for a similar offence, has 
 received punishment in a different form. The applica- 
 tion of this principle to the case of Reformatory 
 cliildren decisively settles the matter in favour of 
 sending such children to Reformatories at once. If 
 this simple reform were effected, the child population 
 of our prisons would almost cease to exist. In the 
 year 1888, this population amounted to 239 for Eng- 
 land and Wales under the age of twelve, and 4,826 
 under the age of sixteen, thus making a total of 5,065 
 or 2'9 per cent, of the whole local prison population. 
 
i66 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES, 
 
 In the precedino- remarks on juvenile offenders 
 under 16, it has been pointed out that the great de- 
 crease in the numbers of such offenders among the 
 prison population is mainly owing to the development 
 of Industrial and Reformatory Schools. In order, 
 therefore, to form an acciirate estimate of juvenile de- 
 linquency, we must look not merely at the number of 
 juveniles in prison; attention must also be directed to 
 the number of juveniles in Reformatory and In- 
 dustrial Institutions. Although these institutions are 
 not places of imprisonment, yet they are places of 
 compulsory detention, and contain a very considerable 
 proportion of juvenile delinquents. All juveniles sent 
 to Reformatories have, indeed, been actually convicted 
 of criminal offences, and in 1S88 the number of young 
 people in the Reformatory Schools of Great Britain 
 (excluding Ireland) was in round numbers six thou- 
 sand (5,984). These must be added to the total 
 juvenile prison population in order to form a true 
 conception of the extent of juvenile crime. It is 
 almost certain that if these young people were not in 
 Reformatories they would be in prisons, for, in almost 
 the same proportion as the Reformatory and In- 
 dustrial School inmates have increased, the juvenile 
 prison population has decreased. 
 
 To the population of the Reformatory Schools must 
 also be added a large percentage of the Industrial 
 School population. Since the year 1864, the number 
 
CRIME IN RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. 167 
 
 of boys and girls in Industrial and Truant Schools 
 has gone on steadily increasing. In that year tlie in- 
 mates amounted to 1,608 ; twenty-four years after- 
 wards, that is to say, in 1888, the number of children 
 in Great Britain in Industrial and Truant Schools 
 amounted to 21,426,^ It is true that a considerable 
 proportion of these childi-en were not sent to the 
 schools on account of having committed crime ; at the 
 same time it has to be remembered that nearly all of 
 them were on the way to it, and would in all pro- 
 bability have become criminals had the State left 
 them alone for a year or two longer. At the time of 
 their committal the children we are now dealing with 
 were either children who had been found begging, or 
 who were wandering about without a settled home, 
 or who were found destitute, or who had a parent in 
 gaol, or who lived in the company of female criminals, 
 prostitutes, and thieves. Such children may not 
 actually have come within the clutches of the criminal 
 law, but it is sufficient to look for a moment at the sur- 
 roundings they had lived in to see that this was only 
 a question of time. We must, therefore, add those 
 children, along with the Reformatory population, to 
 the number of juveniles in gaol if we wish to form a 
 proper estimate of the extent of juvenile delinquency. 
 If this is done we arrive at the conclusion that the 
 criminal and semi-criminal juvenile population is at 
 ^ In 1889 there is a slight decrease. 
 
1 68 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 the present time more than 25,000 strong in England 
 and Wales alone ; if Scotland be included it is more 
 than 30,000 strong. These figures are enough to show- 
 that it is only compulsory detention in State establish- 
 ments which keeps down the numbers of juvenile 
 offenders ; and there can be little doubt, if the inmates 
 of these institutions were let loose upon the country, 
 juveniles would very soon constitute seven, eight, or, 
 perhaps, ten per cent, of the prison population. 
 
 Let us now consider the case of young offenders 
 between the ages of 16 and 21. This is -the most 
 momentous for weal or woe of all periods of life. 
 During this stage, the transition from youth to man- 
 hood is taking place ; the habits then formed acquire 
 a more enduring character, and, in the majority of 
 cases, determine the whole future of the individual. 
 If youths between the ages just mentioned could by 
 any possibility be prevented from embarking on a 
 criminal career, the drop in the criminal population 
 would be far-reaching in its effects. It is from the 
 ranks of young people just entering early manhood 
 that a large proportion of the habitual criminal 
 population is recruited ; and if this critical period of 
 life can be tided over without repeated acts of crime, 
 there is much less likelihood of a young man de- 
 generating afterwards into a criminal of the profes- 
 sional class. It is most important that the professional 
 criminal class should be diminished at a quicker rate 
 
CRIME m RELATION- TO SEX AND AGE. 169 
 
 tlian is the case at present ; and, in spite of police 
 statistics to the contrary, it is a class which has not 
 become perceptibly smaller within the Mst twenty or 
 five and twenty years. A proof of this statement is 
 to be seen in the fact that offences against property 
 with violence display a tendency to increase, and it is 
 offences of this nature which are pre-eminently the 
 work of the habitual criminal. It is a comparatively 
 rare thing to find a habitual criminal stop mid- way in 
 his sinister career ; the accumulated impressions re- 
 sulting from a life of crime have too effectively suc- 
 ceeded in shaping his character and conduct, and he 
 persists, as a rule, in leading an anti-social life so long 
 as he has physical strength to do it. 
 
 The only hope, therefore, of diminishing the habitual 
 criminal population, is to lessen the number of recruits ; 
 and as most of these recruits are to be found among 
 lads of between sixteen and twenty-one, it is to these 
 lads that serious attention must be directed. Every 
 year a certain proportion of youths ranging between 
 these two ages shows a pronounced disposition to enter 
 permanently upon a criminal life by repeatedly re- 
 turning to prison. The deterrent effect of short 
 sentences has ceased to operate upon them, and all the 
 symptoms are present that a downright career of crime 
 has begun. In such circumstances what is to be done ? 
 A plan has been proposed by Mr. Lloyd Baker for 
 dealing with refractory and unmanageable Reformatory 
 
176 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 children, the substance of which is to send them to 
 another institution of a stricter character than the 
 ordinary Reformatory School, and which for want of a 
 better name he calls a Penal Reformatory. It is very 
 probable that something in the nature of a Penal 
 Reformatory is just what is wanted to prevent a 
 youth on the downward road from finally swelling the 
 proportions of the professional criminal population. 
 If Great Britain ever established such institutions, 
 she would then possess a graded set of organisations 
 for dealing Avith the young, which would cover the 
 whole period of youthful life. The Truant School 
 would catch the child on the first symptoms of way- 
 wardness, the Industrial School would arrest him 
 standing on the verge of crime, the Reformatory School 
 would deal with actual offenders against the law, and 
 the Penal Reformatory would grapple with habitual 
 offenders under the age of manhood.^ 
 
 After the age of manhood has been reached, and the 
 main lines of character are formed, punitive methods 
 
 '^ Ages at which 507 offenders first began to commit crime — 
 
 Under 10 
 
 1-6 
 
 
 
 41 to 45 
 
 2-1 
 
 11 to 15 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 46 to 50 
 
 2-3 
 
 IG to 20 
 
 30-1 
 
 
 
 51 to 55 
 
 2-1 
 
 21 to 25 
 
 20-1 
 
 
 
 56 to 60 
 
 •8 
 
 26 to 30 
 
 7-1 
 
 
 
 61 to 65 
 
 •8 
 
 31 to 35 
 
 5-1 
 
 
 
 66 to 70 
 
 ■2 
 
 36 to 40 
 
 3-6 
 
 
 
 
 
 Marro. I caratteri 
 
 dei 
 
 deliiiquente. Studio 
 
 antropologico- 
 
 
 sociologico, 
 
 P- 
 
 356. 
 
 
CklME IN RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. 171 
 
 of dealing with criminal offenders must assume a more 
 prominent position, and the prison should then take 
 the place of the Reformatory. In youth the deterrent) 
 effects of punishment are small, and the beneficial 
 effects of reformative measures are at their maximum. \ 
 In manhood, on the other hand, this condition of 
 things is reversed, and the deterrent effects of punish- 
 ment exceed the beneficial effects of reformative 
 influences. An interesting example of the value of 
 punishment for adults, as compared with other methods, 
 is given by Sir John Strachoy in his account of 
 infanticide in certain parts of India. "For many 
 years past," he says, " measures have been taken in the 
 North-West Provinces for the prevention of this 
 crime. For a long time, when our civilisation was 
 less belligerent than it has since become, it was 
 thought that the best hope of success lay in the 
 removal of the causes which appeared to lead to its 
 commission, and especially in the prevention of ex- 
 travagant expenditure on marriages ; but although 
 these benevolent efforts were undoubtedly useful, 
 their practical results were not great, and it gradually 
 became clear that it was only by a stringent and 
 organised system of coercion that these practices 
 would ever be eradicated. In 1870 an act of the 
 legislature was passed which enabled the Government 
 to deal with the subject. A system of registration 
 of births and deaths among the suspected classes 
 
172 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 was established, with constant inspection and enu- 
 meration of children ; special police-officers were 
 entertained at the cost of the guilty communities, and 
 no efforts were spared to convince them that the 
 Government had firmly resolved that it would put 
 down these practices, and would treat the people who 
 followed them as murderers. Although the time is, I 
 fear, distant when preventive measures will cease to 
 be necessary, much progress has been made, and there 
 are now thousands of girls where formerly there were 
 none. In the Mainpuri district, where, as I have said, 
 there was not many years ago hardly a single Chaulian 
 girl, nearly half of the Chauhan children at the 
 present time are girls ; and it is hoped that three- 
 fourths of the villages have abandoned the practice.''^ 
 These facts speak for themselves and afford an 
 incontestable proof of the value of punishment as a 
 remedial measure when other remedies' have failed.^ 
 In the re-action which is now in full force, and rightly 
 so, against the excessive punishments of past times, 
 there is a marked tendency among some minds to go 
 to the opposite extreme, and an attempt is being 
 made to show that imprisonment has hardly any cura- 
 tive effect at all. Its evils, and from the very nature 
 of things they are not a few, are almost exclusively 
 elaborated and dwelt upon, little attention being paid 
 
 ^ India, by Sir John Str.aohey, pp. 292-3. 
 " Cf. Tarde Fhilosophie Penale, p. 467. 
 
K;KiMM IN RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. 173 
 
 to the vast amount of good which imprisonment alone 
 IS able to effect. It is possible that imprisonment 
 sends a few to utter perdition at a quicker pace than 
 they Vould have gone of their own accord, but on the 
 other hand, it rescues many a man before he has ir- 
 revocably committed himself to a life of crime. If it 
 fails the first time, it very often succeeds after the' 
 second or the third, and no one is justified in saying \ 
 imprisonment is worthless as a reformative agency till/ 
 it has failed at least three times. According to the/ 
 judicial statistics for England and Wales, imprison-l 
 ment is successful after the third time in about 80 per 
 cent, of the cases annually submitted to the criminal 
 courts, and although it is a pity that the percentage is 
 not higher, yet it cannot fairly be said that such re- 
 sults are an evidence of failure. The prison is un- 
 questionably a much less effective weapon for dealing 
 with crime among Continental peoples, and in the 
 United States, than it has shown itself to be in Great 1 
 Britain ; but this failure arises in the main from the 
 laxity and indulgence with which criminals are ) 
 treated in foreign prisons. A prison to possess any re- 
 formative value must always be made an uncomfort- 
 able place to live in; Continental peoples and the 
 people of America have to a large extent lost sight of 
 this fact ; hence the failure of their penal systems to 
 stop the growth of the delinquent population. If, 
 however, imprisonment is not allowed to degenerate 
 
174 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 into mere detention, it is bound to act as a powerful 
 deterrent upon grown-up offenders, and it is tiie only 
 menace which will effectually, keep many of them 
 within the law. The hope of reward and the fear of 
 
 1 punishment, or, in other words, love of pleasure, and 
 dread of pain, are the two most deeply seated instincts 
 
 V in the human breast ; if Mr. Darwin's theory be 
 correct, it is through the operation of these fundamen- 
 tal instincts that such a being as man has come into 
 existence at all. In any case these instincts have 
 hitherto been the chief ingredients of all human pro- 
 gress, the most effective spur to energy of all kinds, 
 and when properly utilised they are the most potent 
 of all deterrents to crime. Were it possible for the 
 ,'liand of social justice to descend on every criminal 
 with infallible certainty ; were it universally true that 
 no crime could possibly escape punishment, that every 
 offence against society would inevitably and im- 
 
 ; mediately be visited on the offender, the tendency to 
 commit crime would probably become as rare as the 
 tendency of an ordinary human being to thrust his 
 hand into the fire. The uncertainty of punishment is 
 the great bul wark of crime, and crime has a marvellous 
 knack of diminishing in proportion as this uncertainty 
 decreases. No amelioration of the material circum- 
 stances of the community can destroy all the causes of 
 crime, and till moral progress has reached a height 
 hitherto attained only by the elect of the race, one of 
 
CRIME IN RELATION TO SEX AND AGE. 175 
 
 the most efficient curbs upon tlie criminally disposed 
 will consist in increasing the probability of punish- 
 ment. 
 
 In proportion as the probability of being punished 
 is augmented, the severity of punishment can be safely 
 diminished. This is one of the paramount advantages 
 to be derived from a highly efficient police system.. 
 The barbarity of punishments in the Middle Ages is 
 always attributed by historians to the barbarous ideas 
 of those rude times. But this is only partially true ; one 
 important consideration is overlooked. In the Middle 
 Ao-es it was extremely difficult to catch the criminal ; 
 in fact, it is only within the present century that an 
 organised system for effecting the capture of criminals 
 has come into existence. The result of the nebulous 
 police system of past times was that very few offen- 
 ders were brought to justice at all, and society, in 
 order to prevent lawlessness from completely getting 
 the upper hand, was obliged to make a terrible 
 example of all offenders coming within its grasp. As 
 soon, however, as it became less difficult to arrest and 
 convict lawless persons, the old severities of the crimi- 
 nal code immediately began to fall into abeyance. 
 Sentences were shortened, punishments were mitigated, 
 the death penalty was abolished for almost all crimes 
 except murder. But even now, the moment society 
 sees any form of crime showing a tendency to evade 
 the vigilance of the law, a cry is immediately raised 
 
176 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 for sterner measures of repression against the per- 
 petrators of that particular form of crime. The 
 Flogging Bill recently passed by Parliament is a case 
 in point. These instances afford a fairly accurate 
 ; insight into the action of society with regard to the 
 punishment of crime. It punishes severely when the 
 criminal is seldom caught; it punishes more lightly 
 when he is often caught ; and its punishments will 
 become more mitigated still, as soon as the probability 
 of capture is made more complete. A comparatively 
 light sentence is in most cases a very effective deter- 
 rent, when it is made almost a certainty, and all alter- 
 ations in the future in criminal administration should 
 be in the direction of making punishment more certain 
 rather than more severe. Such efforts are sure to be 
 rewarded by a decrease in the amount of crime. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CRIMINAL IN BODY AND MIND. 
 
 Has the criminal any bodily and mental characteristics 
 which differentiate him from the ordinary man ? 
 Does he differ from his fellows in heio-ht and weight ? 
 Does he possess a pecuhar conformation of skull and 
 brain ? Is he anomalous in face and feature, in in- 
 tellect, in will, in feeling ? Is he, in shoit, an indi- 
 vidual separated from the rest of humanity by any 
 set or combination of qualities which clearly mark 
 him off as an abnormal being ? As these matters are 
 at present exciting considerable attention, let us now 
 look at the criminal from a purely biological point of 
 view. 
 
 A good deal of diversity of opinion exists among 
 competent authorities respecting the stature of crimi- 
 nals. Lombroso says that Italian criminals are above 
 the average height ; Knecht says German criminals 
 do not differ in this respect from other men ; Marro 
 says the stature of criminals is variable ; Thomson 
 and Wilson say that criminals are inferior in point of 
 
 stature to the average man. Whatever may be the 
 
 177 M 
 
178 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 case on the Continent, there can be little doubt that as 
 far as the United Kingdom is concerned, the height 
 of the criminal class is lower than that of the ordi- 
 nary citizen. In Scotland the average height of the 
 ordinary population is (559) 67-30 inches ; the average 
 height of the criminal population, as given by Dr. 
 Bruce Thomson, is (324) 66-95 inches. According to 
 Dr. Beddoe, the average height of the London artizan 
 population is (318) 66-72 inches ; the average height 
 of the London criminal (300) 54-70 inches ; the aver- 
 age height of Liverpool criminals, according to Danson, 
 is (1117) 66-39 inches. Danson's figures point to the 
 fact that there is hardly any difference in height 
 beffcween the criminal classes of Liverpool and the 
 artizan population of London. It has, however, to be 
 borne in mind that the population of the North of 
 England, being largely of Scandinavian descent, is 
 taller than the population of the South of England. 
 The height of Liverpool criminals should be compared 
 with the average height of the Scotch, to whom they 
 are more nearly allied by race. If this is done, it will 
 be seen that they fall considerably short of the normal 
 stature. 
 
 The difference between the height of the criminal 
 population and that of the most favoured classes is 
 more remarkable still. According to Dr. Roberts' 
 tables, the average height of the latter is 69-06 inches; 
 the London criminal is only 64-70 inches. There is 
 
THE CRIMINAL IN BODY AND MIND. 179 
 
 thus a difference of from four to five inches between the 
 most highly favoured classes and the London criminal 
 class. The difference between the criminal class arid 
 the merely well-to-do is not quite so great. Selecting 
 Mr. Galton's Health Exhibition measurements as a 
 test of the stature of the well-to-do classes, the results 
 come out as follows : — Health Exhibition measure- 
 ments, 67'9 inches ; London criminals, 6470 inches. 
 The criminal is thus between two and three inches 
 inferior in height to the well-to-do portion of the com- 
 munity. In fact, the height of the London criminal 
 is very nearly the same as that of the East-End Jew. 
 According to Mr. Jacobs, in a paper communicated 
 to the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, the 
 average stature of the East-End Jew is 64-S incbes ; 
 his co-religionist in the West-End is 67'5 inches. VYe 
 may accordingly take it as the outcome of these 
 measurements that the criminal population of Great 
 Britain is inferior in point of stature to the ordinary 
 population. 
 
 From stature we shall pass to weight. Lombroso 
 and Marro say that the weight of Italian criminals 
 is superior to the weight of the average Italian citizen. 
 On the other hand, the weight of London criminals 
 is almost the same as that of London artizans, but in- 
 ferior to the weight of the artizan population in the 
 large English towns taken as a whole. Average 
 weight of London criminals (300) 136 pounds ; aver- 
 
I So CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 age weight of London artizan (318)137 pounds ; aver- 
 age weight of artizans in large towns generally, 188 
 pounds. The London criminal is considerably inferior 
 in weight to the well-to-do classes, as will be seen 
 from Mr. Galton's Health Exhibition statistics. Aver- 
 age weight. Health Exhibition, 143 pounds; average 
 weight, most favoured class (Roberts)^ 152 pounds. 
 These figures show that the criminal class in London 
 is seven pounds lighter than the well-to-do, and six- 
 teen pounds lighter than the most favoured section of 
 the population. 
 
 Hardly any investigations have been made in this 
 country respecting the skulls of criminals, and the in- 
 quiries of continental investigators have so far led to 
 very conflicting results. It is a contention of Lombroso's 
 that the skulls of criminals exhibit a larger proportiouof 
 asymmetrical peculiarities than the skulls of other men. 
 On this point Lombroso is supported by Manouvrier. 
 But Topinard, an anthropologist of great eminence, is of 
 an opposite opinion. He carefully examined the same 
 series of skulls as had been examined by Manouvrier 
 — 'the skulls of murderers — and he discovered no 
 marked difference between these and other skulls. 
 Heger, a Belgian anthropologist, says that the skulls of 
 delinquents do not differ from the skulls of the race 
 to which the delinquent belongs. In fact, till more 
 exactitude is introduced into the methods of skull 
 measurement, all deductions based upon an examina- 
 
THE CRIMINAL IN BODY AND MIND. i8i 
 
 tion of the criminal skull must be regarded as un- 
 trustworthy. A striking instance of this was wit- 
 nessed at the proceedings of the Paris Congress of 
 Criminal Anthropology held in 1889. When the skull 
 of Charlotte Corday, who killed the revolutionist 
 Marat, was subjected to examination, Lombroso de- 
 clared that it was a truly criminal type of skull ; 
 Topinard, on the other hand, gave it as his opinion 
 that it was a typical female skull. On this point 
 Topinard was supported bj' Benedict.^ As long as 
 such divergencies of view exist among anthropologists 
 it is impossible to place much stress upon inquiries 
 relative to the conformation of the criminal skull. 
 Before a beginning can be made with inquiries of 
 this character, there must be some fundamental basis 
 of ao-reement among investigators as to what is to be 
 accounted asymmetrical in skull measurements and 
 what is not. Even then it will have to be remembered, 
 before coming to conclusions, that no skull is perfectly 
 symmetrical — every one showing some variation from 
 the ideal type. When the extent of this variation 
 has been absolutely demonstrated to be greater in the 
 case of criminals than among other sections of the 
 community, we shall then be approaching solid ground. 
 At present we must wait for further light before any- 
 thing can be said with certainty with respect to the 
 
 criminal skull. 
 
 1 See Bevista Internacional de Anthropologia Criminal y den- 
 cias Medico-Legales, Uarzo e April de 1890, 
 
iS2 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 Just as little is known at present about the brain 
 of criminals as about the skull. Some years ago 
 ; Professor Benedict startled the world by stating that 
 ; he had discovered the seat of crime in the convolu- 
 tions of the brain. He found a certain number of 
 anomalies in the convolutions of the frontal lobes, 
 ; and he came to the conclusion that crime was con- 
 i nected with the existence of these anomalies. But he 
 had omitted to examine the frontal convolutions of 
 honest people. When this was done by other investi- 
 gators, it was found that the brain convolutions of 
 normal men presented just as many anomalies, some 
 investigators (Dr. Giacomini) said even more than the 
 brains of criminals. According to Dr. Bardeleben, 
 there is no such thing as a normal type of brain. 
 Weight of brain is a much simpler question than 
 brain type, but so far it is impossible to say whether 
 the criminal brain is heavier or lighter than the 
 ordinary brain. The solution of this comparatively 
 simple point is beset by a certain number of obstacles. 
 It is not enough, Dr. Binswanger tells us, to weigh the 
 brains of criminals and the brains of ordinary persons 
 and then strike an average of the results. The height 
 and weight of the persons whose brains are averaged 
 are essential to the formation of accurate conclusions ; 
 till these important factors are taken into account, all 
 deductions based upon weight of brain only rest upon 
 an unsure foundation. 
 
But supposing we had a trustworthy body of facts 
 bearing upon the weight and structure of the criminal 
 brain, we should still require to know much more of 
 brain functions in general before satisfactory conclu- 
 sions could be drawn from these facts. We know 
 something, it is true, of the physiological functions of 
 certain cerebral regions, but as yet nothing is known 
 of the localisation of any particular mental faculty, 
 whether criminal or otherwise. A conclusive proof 
 that the study of the brain, as an organ of thought, is 
 still in its infancy, is found in the fact that the funda- 
 mental question is still unsolved, whether the whole 
 brain is to be considered one in all its parts, so far as 
 the performance of psychic functions is concerned, or 
 whether these functions are localised in certain 
 definite centres. Till these fundamental difficulties 
 are cleared away, the presence of anomalies in certain 
 convolutions of the brain will not prove very much 
 one way or the other.^ 
 
 An examination of the criminal face has so far led 
 to no definite and assured results. In the imagination 
 of artists the criminal is almost always credited with 
 the possession of a retreating forehead. As a matter 
 of fact, Dr. Marro, one of the most eminent representa- 
 
 1 A masterly article on the " Localisation of Brain Functions" 
 
 will be found in Wundt's PhUosophische Studien Sechster Band, 1. 
 
 ■ Heft Zur Frage der Localisation der Orosshimfundionen, Von W. 
 
 Wundt. Compare also The Croonia/ii Lectures on Cerebral 
 
 Localisation, by David Ferrier. London : 1890. 
 
i84 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 tives of the anthropological school, assures us that 
 this is not the case. After comparing the foreheads 
 of 539 delinquents with the foreheads of 100 ordinary- 
 men, he found that criminals had a smaller percent- 
 aofe of retreating' foreheads than the average man.^ 
 He also found that projecting eyebrows, another trait 
 which is supposed to be a criminal peculiarity, were 
 almost as common among ordinary people as among 
 offenders against the law. Projecting ears is another 
 peculiarity which is often associated with the idea of 
 a criminal. But Dr. Lannois states that after a care- 
 ful examination of the ears of 43 young offenders, he 
 found them as free from anomalies as the ears of other 
 people.^ 
 
 As it is the Italians who have studied these matters 
 most exhaustively, it is mainly to them we must go 
 for information. In a little book on the skeleton and 
 the form of the nose, Dr. Salvator Ottolenghi comes 
 to the somewhat curious result that the bones of the 
 criminal nose offer many anomalies of a pre-human 
 or bestial character; but the nose itself is straight and 
 long, or, in other words, just as highly developed as 
 the noses of ordinary men. Careful inquiries have 
 been undertaken by criminal anthropologists into the 
 colour of the hair, the length of the arms, the colour 
 of the skin, tattooing, sensitiveness to pain among the 
 
 1 Marro, I Caraiieri dei Delinquenti, p. 157. 
 
 2 Archives d'antfiropologie criminelle Liwaison, 10. 
 
THE CRIMINAL IN BODY AND MIND. 185 
 
 criminal population, but these laborious investigations 
 have so far led to few solid conclusions. According to 
 Lombroso, insensibility to pain is a marked character- 
 istic of the typical criminal.^ " Individuals," he says, 
 " who possess this quality consider themselves as 
 privileged, and they despise delicate and sensitive 
 persons. It is a pleasure to such hardened men to 
 torment others whom they look upon as inferior 
 beings." On this point M. Joly is at variance with 
 Lombroso. " I asked," he says, " at the central hos- 
 pital, the Sant4 where all persons who become seri- 
 ously ill in the prisons of the Seine are looked after, 
 if this disvulnerability had ever been noticed. I was 
 told that far from that, prisoners were always found 
 very sensitive to pain. . . Honest people, industrious 
 workmen, the fathers of families treated at the 
 Charitd, or the Hotel-Dieu (Paris hospitals), undergo 
 operations with much more fortitude than the sick 
 prisoners of the Santt^."^ On this point, therefore, as 
 on so many others, we are still without a sufficient 
 body of evidence, and must, meanwhile, suspend our 
 
 j adgmenfc. 
 
 Let us now consider the criminal's physiognomy. 
 In this connection it must be borne in mind that a 
 prolonged period of imprisonment will change the 
 face of any man, whether he is a criminal or not. 
 
 1 L'Homme Oi-iminel, 324. 
 
 2 Le Oi-ime, 193, 
 
iS6 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 Political offenders who have undergone a sentence of 
 penal servitude, and who may be men of the highest 
 character, acquire the prison look and never altogether 
 get rid of it. If a man spends a certain number of 
 years sharing the life, the food, the occupations of five 
 or six hundred other men, if he mixes with them and 
 with no one else, he will inevitably come to resemble 
 them in face and feature. A remarkable illustration 
 of this fact has recently been brought to light by the 
 Photographic Society of Geneva. "From photographs 
 of seventy-eight old couples, and of as many adult 
 brothers and sisters, it was found that twenty-four of 
 the former resembled each other much more strongly 
 than as many of the latter who were thought most 
 like one another."^ It would, therefore, seem that 
 the action of unconscious imitation, arising from con- 
 stant contact, is capable of producing a remarkable 
 change in the features, the acquired expression fre- 
 quently tending to obliterate inherited family resem- 
 blances. According to Piderit, physiognomy is to be 
 considered as a mimetic expression which has become 
 ha;bitual. The criminal type of face, so conspicuous 
 in pld offenders, is in many cases merely a prison 
 type ; it is not congenital ; men who do not originally 
 have it almost always acquire it after a prolonged 
 period of penal servitude. 
 
 But apart from the prison type of countenance, it 
 
 1 Daily Neios, June 12, 1890. 
 
THE CRIMINAL IN BODY AND .^flAD. 187 
 
 Js highly probable that a distinct criminal type 
 also exists. Certain professions generate distinctive 
 castes of feature, as, for instance, the Army and the 
 Church. This distinctiveness is not confined to 
 features alone, it diffuses itself over the whole man ; 
 it is observable in manner, in gesture, in bearing, in 
 demeanour, and is constantly breaking out in a 
 variety of unexpected ways. In like manner the 
 habitual criminal acquires the habits of his class. 
 Crime is his profession : it is also the profession of all 
 his associates. The constant practice of this profes- 
 sion results in the acquisition of a certain demeanour, 
 a certain aspect, gait, and general appearance, in many 
 instances too subtle to define, but, at the same time, 
 plain and palpable to an expert. 
 
 The slang of criminals is also explicable on the 
 same principle. Every trade and calling has its 
 technical terms. The meaning of these terms is 
 hidden from -the rest of the world, but the origin of 
 their existence is not difficult to explain. The jargon 
 of the criminal arises from the same causes and is 
 constructed on exactly the same principles as the 
 technical words and phrases of the man of science. 
 When a man of science is compelled to make frequent 
 use of a phrase, he generally gets rid of it by invent- 
 ing some technical word; it is precisely the same 
 with criminals. With them technical words are used 
 instead of phrases, and short words instead of long 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 ones in all matters where criminal interests are intim- 
 ately concerned, and on all topics which are habitually 
 the subjects of conversation among the criminal 
 classes. The lano-uaire of the Stock Exchange with 
 its Bulls, Bears, Contangos, and other short and com- 
 proliensive expressions for various kinds of stocks, is 
 on all fours with the slang of criminals, and it is not 
 necessary to resort to atavism in order to explain it. 
 It arises to supply professional needs, and criminal 
 argot springs up from exactly the same cause. 
 
 Summing up our inquiries respecting the criminal 
 type, we arrive, in the first place, at the general conclu- 
 sion, that so far as it has a real existence it is not born 
 with a man, but originates either in the prison, and is 
 then merely a prison type, or in criminal habits of 
 life, and is then a truly criminal type. As a matter 
 of fact, the two types are in most cases blended 
 together, the prison type with its hard, impassive 
 rigidity of feature being superadded to the gait, 
 gesture and demeanour of the habitual criminal. In 
 combination these two types form a professional 
 tjqie and constitute what Dr. Bruce Thomson^ has 
 called " a physique distinctly characteristic of the 
 criminal class." It is not, however, a type which 
 admits of accurate description, and its practical utility 
 is impaired by the fact that certain of its features are 
 sometimes visible in men who have never been con- 
 i Jotirnal of Mental Science, vol. xvi. 
 
THE CRIMINAL IN BODY AND MIND. 189 
 
 victed of crime. The position of the case, with respect 
 to the criminal type, may be best described by saying 
 that an experienced detective officer will be sure in 
 nine cases out of ten that he has got hold of a 
 criminal by profession, but in the tenth case he will 
 probably make a mistake. In other words, face, 
 manner and demeanour 9je no infallible index of 
 character or habits of life. 
 
 When crime is not an inherited taint, but merely 
 an acquired habit, this fact has an important prac- 
 tical bearing upon the proper method of dealing with 
 it. Acquired habits, we are now being taught by 
 Professor Weismann, are incapable of being trans- i 
 mitted to posterity, and Mr. Galton is of the same ' 
 opinion.^ This is not the place to elaborate the 
 theory of inheritance, as understood by these writers ; 
 its essence, however, is that we only inherit the 
 natural faculties of our forebears, and not those 
 faculties which they have acquired by practice and 
 experience. The son of a rope-dancer does not inherit 
 his father's faculties for rope-dancing, nor the son of 
 an orator his father's ready aptitude for public speech, 
 nor the son of a designer his father's acquired skill in 
 the making of designs. AH that the son inherits is 
 the natural faculties of the parent, but no more. 
 
 ^ Die, Gontinuitat des Keimjjlasma als GruncUage einer Theorie 
 der Vererbung. A. Weismann. Jena, 1885. Natural Inherit- 
 ance. F. Galton. 
 
190 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 Hence it follows that the son of a thief, on the sup- 
 position that thieving comes by habit and practice, 
 does not by natural inheritance acquire the parent's 
 criminal propensity. As far as his natural faculties 
 are concerned he starts life free from the vicious 
 habits of his parent, and should he in turn become a 
 thief, as sometimes happens, it is not because he has 
 inherited his father's thievish habits, but because he 
 has himself acquired them. It is imitation, not in- 
 stinct, which transforms him into a thief; and if he is 
 removed from the iniiuence of evil example he will 
 have almost as small a chance of falling into a crim- 
 inal life as any other member of the community. It 
 will not be quite so small, because no public institu- 
 tion, however well conducted, can ever exercise so 
 moralising an effect as a good home, but it will be 
 much smaller than if he grew up to maturity under 
 the pernicious surroundings of a criminal home. 
 
 If we do not inherit the acquired faculties and 
 habits of our parents, it is unfortunately too true that 
 we inherit their diseases, and the connection between 
 disease and crime is a fact which cannot be denied. 
 In many cases it is perfectly true that persons suffer- 
 ing from disease or physical degeneracy do not become 
 criminals, in most cases they do not ; at the same time 
 a larger proportion of such persons fall into a lawless 
 life than is the case with people who are free from 
 inherited infirmities. The undoubted tendency of 
 
THE CRIMINAL IN BODY AND MIND. 191 
 
 physical infirmity is to disturb the temper, to weaken 
 the will, and generally to disorganise the mental 
 equilibrium. Such a tendency, when it becomes very 
 pronounced, leads its unhappy possessor to perpetrate 
 offences against his fellow-men, or, in other words, to 
 commit crime. In a recent communication to a Ger- 
 man periodical, Herr Sicharb, director of prisons in 
 the kingdom of Wurtemburg, has shown that a very 
 high percentage of criminals are the descendants of 
 degenerate parents. Herr Sichart's inquiries extended 
 over several years and included 1,714 prisoners. Of 
 this number 16 per cent, were descended from drunken 
 parents ; 6 per cent, from families in which there was 
 madness ; 4 per cent, from families addicted to suicide ; 
 1 per cent, from families in which there was epilepsy. 
 In all, 27 per cent, of the offenders, examined by Herr 
 Sichart, were descended from families in which there 
 was degeneracy. According to these figures more 
 than one fourth of the German prison population 
 have received a defective organisation from their 
 ancestry, which manifests itself in a life of 
 crime. 
 
 In France and Italy the same state of things pre- 
 vails. Dr. Corre is of opinion that a very large pro- 
 portion of persons convicted of bad conduct in the 
 French military service are distinctly degenerate 
 either in body or mind. Dr. Virgilio says that in 
 Italy 32 per cent, of the criminal population have 
 
192 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 ji_ 
 
 inherited criminal tendencies from their parents. In 
 England there is no direct means of testing the 
 amount of degeneracy among the criminal classes, 
 but, in all likelihood, it is quite as great as elsewhere. 
 According to the report of the Medical Inspector of 
 convict prisons for 1888-9, the annual number of 
 deaths from natural causes, among the convict popula- 
 tion, is from 10 to 12 per 1000. Let us compare these 
 figures with the death rate of the general ]iopulation 
 as recorded in the Registrar-General's report for 1888. 
 The annual death rate from all causes of the general 
 population, between the ages of 15 and 46, is about 7 
 per 1000. I have selected the period of life between 
 15 and 45 for the reason that it corresponds most 
 closely with the average age of criminals. If deaths, 
 from accident are excluded from the mortality returns 
 of the general population, it will be found that the 
 rate of mortality among criminals, in convict prisons, 
 is from one third to one half higher than the rate of 
 mortality among the rest of the community of a 
 similar age. If the rate of mortality of the criminal 
 population is so high inside convict prisons, where the 
 health of the inmates is so carefully attended to, what 
 must it be among the criminal classes when in a state 
 of liberty ? Independently of the premature deaths 
 brought on by irregularity of life, it is certain that a 
 high proportion of criminals bear within them the 
 seeds of inherited disorders, and it is these disorders 
 
THE CRIMINAL IN BODY AND MIND. 193 
 
 which largely account for the high rate of mortality 
 amongst them when in prison. 
 
 The high percentage of disease and degeneracy 
 among the English criminal population may be seen 
 in other ways. The population in the local gaols in 
 1888-9, between the ages of 21 and 40, constituted 54 
 per cent, of the total prison population, whilst the same 
 class between the ages of 40 and 60 formed only 20 per 
 cent, of the prison population. One half of this drop 
 in the percentage of prisoners between 40 and 60 
 may be accounted for by the decreased percentage of 
 persons between these two ages in the general population. 
 The other half can only be accounted for by the extent 
 to which premature decay and death rage among 
 criminals who have passed their fortieth year. In 
 other words, the number of criminals alive after forty 
 is much smaller than the number of normal men alive 
 after that age. 
 
 A direct proof of the extent of degeneracy in the shape 
 of insanity among persons convicted of murder can 
 be found in the Judicial Statistics. The number of 
 persons convicted of wilful murder, not including 
 manslaughter or non-capital homicides, from 1879 to 
 1888 amounted to 441. Out of this total 143 or 32 
 per cent, were found insane. Of the 299 condemned 
 to death, no less than 145, or nearly one half, had their 
 sentences commuted, many of them on the ground of 
 
 mental infirmity. The whole of these figures de- 
 
 N 
 
194 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 cisively prove that between 40 and 50 per cent. o£ the 
 convictions for wilful murder are cases in which the 
 murderers were either insane or mentally infirm. 
 Murder cases are almost the only ones respecting 
 which the antecedents of the offender are seriously 
 inquired into. But when this inquiry does take place 
 the vast amount of degeneracy among criminals at 
 once becomes apparent. 
 
 Passing from the mental condition of murderers, let 
 us now take into consideration the mental state of 
 criminals generally. Beginning with the senses, it 
 may be said that very little stress can be laid on the 
 experiments conducted by the Anthropological School 
 as to peculiarities in the sense of smell, taste, sight, and 
 so on, discovered among criminals. In all these 
 inquiries it is so easy for the subject to deceive the 
 investigator, and he has often so direct an interest in 
 doing it that all results in this department must be 
 accepted with the utmost caution. Wherever investiga- 
 tions necessitate the acceptance upon trust of state- 
 ments made by criminals, their scientific value 
 descends to the lowest level. As this must be largely 
 the case with respect to the senses of hearing, taste, 
 smell, etc., it is almost impossible to reach assured 
 conclusions. 
 
 It is diff'erent in inquiries respecting the intellect. 
 Here the investigator is able to judge for himself. 
 According to Dr. Ogle, SS'o per cent, of the general 
 
THE CRIMINAL IN BODY AND MIND. 195 
 
 3opulatlon were able to read and write in the years- 
 1881-4, and as this represents an increase of 10 per cent.! 
 since the passing of the Elementary Education Act/ 
 it is probably not far from the mark to say that at 
 the present time almost 90 per cent, of the English; 
 population can read and write. In other words, only( 
 10 per cent, of the population is wholly ignorant. 1 
 In the local prisons on the other hand, no less than ' 
 25 per cent, of the prisoners can neither read nor 
 write, and 72 per cent, can only read or read and 
 Yirite imperfectly. The vast difference in the pro- 
 portion of uninstructed among the prison, as compared 
 with the general population, is not to be explained by 
 the defective early training of the former. This ex- 
 planation only covers a portion of the ground ; the 
 other portion is covered by the fact, that a certain 
 number of criminals are almost incapable of acquiring 
 instruction. The memory and the reasoning powers 
 of such persons are so utterly feeble that attempts to 
 school them is a waste of time.^ Deficiencies in 
 memory, imagination, reason, are three undoubted 
 characteristics of the ordinary criminal intellect. Of 
 course, there are very many criminals in which all 
 these qualities are present, and whose defects lie in 
 another direction, but taken as a whole the criminal is 
 
 ^ In Chrisfciania the number of children who cannot learn 
 amounts in the elementary schools to 4 per 1000. See 
 Beformatory atid Befuge Journal for August, 1890. 
 
196 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 unquestionably less gifted intellectually than the rest 
 of the community. 
 
 Respecting the emotions of criminals, it is much 
 more diiEcult to speak, and much more easy to fall 
 into error. The only thing that can be said of them 
 for certain, is, that they do not, as a rule, possess the 
 same keenness of feeling as the ordinary man. Some 
 Italian writers make much of the religiosity of 
 delinquents ; such a sentiment may be common among 
 offenders in Italy ; it is certainly rare among the same 
 class in Great Britain. The cellular system puts an 
 effective stop to any thing like active hostility to 
 religion ; but it is a mistake to argue from this that 
 the criminal is addicted to the exercise of religious 
 sentiments. The family sentiment is also feebly 
 developed ; the exceptions to this rule form a small 
 fraction of the criminal population. 
 
 The will in criminals, when it is not impaired by 
 disease, is, in the main, dominated by a boundless 
 egoism. Let us first consider those whose wills are 
 impaired by disease. Among drunkards and the 
 degenerate generally the power of sustained volition is 
 often as good as gone. Nothing can be more pitiful 
 or hopeless than the position of wretched beings in a 
 condition such as this. Often animated by good 
 resolutions, often anxious to do what is right, often 
 possessing a sense of moral responsibility, these- un- 
 happy creatures plunge again and again into vice and 
 
THE CRIMINAL IN BOD V AND MIND. 197 
 
 crime. In some cases of this description the will is 
 practically annihilated ; in others it is under the 
 dominion o£ momentary caprice ; in others again it 
 has no power of concentration, or it is the victim of 
 sudden hurricanes of feeling which drive everything 
 before them. Persons afflicted in this way, when not 
 drunkards, are generally convicted for crimes of 
 violence, such as assault, manslaughter, murder. 
 They experience real sentiments' of remorse, but 
 neither remorse nor penitence enables them to grapple 
 with their evil star. The will is stricken with 
 disease, and the man is dashed hither and thither, a 
 helpless wreck on the sea of life.^ 
 
 Let us now consider the class of criminals whose 
 wills are not diseased, but are, on the other hand, 
 dominated by a boundless egoism. Of such criminals 
 it may be said that there is no essential difference/ 
 between them and immoral men. Egoism, selfisliness,[ 
 a lack of consideration for the rights and feelings of > 
 others, are the dominant principles in the life of both. 
 The dividing line between the two types consists in 
 this, that the egoism of the immoral man is bounded' 
 by the criminal law ; but the egoism of the criminal is \ 
 bounded by no law either without him or within. It 
 does not follow from this that the criminal is without ; 
 a sense of duty or a dread of legal punishment. In 
 most cases he possesses both in a more or less developed 
 1 Of. Ribot, Les Maladies de la, Volontd, 1887, 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 form. But his immense egoism so completely over- 
 powers both his sense of duty and his fear of punish- 
 ment that it demands gratification at whatever cost. 
 He sees what he ought to do ; he knows how he ought 
 to act; he is perfectly alive to the consequences of 
 transgression, but these motives are not strong enough 
 to induce him to alter his ways of life. 
 
 On summing up the results of this inquiry into 
 criminal biology we arrive at the following conclusions. 
 In the first place, it cannot be proved that the criminal 
 has any distinct physical conformation, whether 
 anatomical or morphological; and, in the second 
 place, it cannot be proved that there is any inevitable 
 
 ; alliance between anomalies of physical structure and 
 a criminal mode of life. But it can be shown that 
 
 ' criminals, taken as a whole, exhibit a higher pro- 
 portion of phj'sical anomalies, and a higher percentage 
 of physical degeneracy than the rest of the community. 
 With respect to the mental condition of criminals, it 
 cannot be established that it is, on the whole, a con- 
 dition of insanit}'', or even verging on insanity. But 
 it can be established that the bulk of the criminal 
 classes are of a humbly developed mental organisation. 
 Whether we call this low state of mental develop- 
 ment, atavism, or degeneracy is, to a large extent, a 
 matter of words ; the fact of its wide-spread existence 
 among criminals is the important point. 
 
 The results of this inquiry also show that degeneracy 
 
THE CRIMINAL IN BODY AND MIND. 199 
 
 among criminals is sometimes inherited and sometimes 
 acquired. It is inherited when the criminal is de- 
 scended from insane, drunken, epileptic, scrofulous 
 parents; it is often acquired when the criminal adopts 
 and deliberately persists in a life of crime. The 
 closeness of the connection between degeneracy and 
 crime is, to a considerable extent, determined by social 
 conditions. A degenerate person, who has to earn his 
 own livelihood, is much more likely to become a 
 criminal than another degenerate person who has not. 
 Almost all forms of degeneracy render a man more or 
 less unsuited for the common work of life ; it is not 
 easy for such a man to obtain employment ; in certain 
 forms of degeneracy it becomes almost impossible. A 
 person in this unfortunate position often becomes a 
 criminal, not because he has strong anti-social instincts, 
 but because he cannot get work. Physically, he is unfit 
 for work, and he takes to crime as an alternative. 
 
 Another important result is the close connection 
 between madness and crimes of blood. We have seen 
 that almost one third of the cases of conviction for 
 wilful murder are cases in which the murderer is 
 found to be insane. And this does not represent the 
 full proportion of murderers afflicted mentally; a con- 
 siderable percentage of those sentenced to death have 
 this sentence commuted on mental grounds. In Ger- 
 many, from 26 to 28 per cent, of criminals suffering 
 from mental weakness escape the observation of the 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 coin-t in this important particular, and the same state 
 of things unquestionably exists in the United King- 
 dom. The actual percentage of criminals who suffer 
 from mental disorders in the prisons of Europe is 
 probably much greater than is generally supposed. 
 At the present time a knowledge of insanity is no 
 part of the ordinary medical curriculum. " With 
 respect to this malady the great majority of medical 
 men are themselves in the position of laymen. They 
 , I have not studied it. It was not included in their 
 i examinations."^ Till this state of things is altered we 
 shall never exactly know the intimacy of the con- 
 ) nection between nervous disorders and crime. 
 
 ^ Sanity and Insanity. C. Mercier, p. XII. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 
 
 In a previous chapter the deterrent action of punish- 
 ment on the criminal population has been pointed out. 
 It now remains for us to consider the nature of 
 punishment, and the methods by which punishment 
 should be carried out. What is punishment as 
 applied to crime ? According to Kant it is an act of 
 retribution ; it consists in inflicting upon the criminal 
 the same injury as he has inflicted on his victim. It 
 is an application by society of the principle of "jus 
 talionis." Such a definition of punishment does not 
 harmonise with the facts. We cannot punish the 
 slanderer by slandering him in turn ; and in punish- 
 ing the murderer, it is impossible to torture him in 
 the same way as he has probably tortured his victim. 
 According to the theory of retribution, punishment 
 becomes an end in itself ; it is quite unrelated to the 
 benefits it may confer on the person who is punished, 
 or on the community which punishes him. 
 
 The difficulties surrounding the theory of retribu- 
 tion have led to other definitions of punishment. 
 
 20 1 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 Punishment, it is said, is not inflicted on the offender 
 \as a retribution for his misdeeds, it is inflicted for the 
 purpose of protecting society against its enemies. 
 Buch a view leaves moral considerations entirely out 
 of account ; it leaves no room for the just indigna- 
 tion of the public at the spectacle of crime. It is de- 
 fective in other ways. For instance, a criminal has a 
 [particular animosity against some single individual ; 
 it may be he murders this person, or does him griev- 
 ous bodily harm. Such an ofTender has no similar 
 ; animosity against any one else ; as far as the rest of 
 the community is concerned he is perfectly harmless. 
 On the supposition that punishment is only intended 
 to protect society against the criminal, a man of this 
 description would escape punishment altogether. Or 
 supposing a man (and this often happens), after com- 
 mitting some serious crime for which he is sent to 
 penal servitude, sincerely and bitterly repented of it, 
 and would be, if released, a perfectly harmless 
 member of the community, such a man, according 
 to the theory we are now discussing, should be re- 
 leased at once. The certainty that the public con- 
 science would tolerate no such step shows that pun- 
 ishment has a wider object than the mere attainment 
 of social security. 
 
 Punishment is only a means say some ; its real end 
 is the reformation of the offender. The practical 
 application of such a principle would lead to very as- 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME.. 203 
 
 tonisbing results. It is perfectly well known that 
 there is no more incorrigible set of offenders than 
 habitual vagrants and drunkards. And on the other 
 hand, the most easily reformed of all offenders is often 
 some person who has committed a serious crime 
 under circumstances which could not possibly recur. 
 According to the theory that reformation is the only 
 end of punishment, petty offenders would be shut up 
 all their lives, while the perpetrator of a grave crime 
 would soon be set free. An absurd result of this 
 kind is fatal to the pretention that punishment is 
 merely a means and not also an end. 
 
 Is it the end of punishment to act as a deterrent ? 
 We are often told from the judicial bench that a man 
 receives a certain sentence as a warning and example 
 to others. If such is the end of punishment it 
 lamentably fails in its purpose, for in a number of 
 cases it neither deters the offender nor the class frona 
 which the offender springs. It was under the in- 
 fluence of this idea that criminals used to be hanged 
 in public, but experience failed to show that these 
 ghastly exhibitions had much deterrent effect on the' 
 community. Besides, it is rather ridiculous to say, 
 I do not punish you for the crime you have com- 
 mitted, I punish you as a warning to others. In 
 these circumstances the effect of punishment is not to 
 be upon the person punished, but upon a third party 
 who has not fallen into crime. Unless the punishment 
 
204 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 is just in itself, society lias no right to inflict it in the 
 hope of scaring others from criminal courses. Justice 
 administered in this spirit, turns the convicted 
 offender into a whipping boy ; the punishment ceases 
 to be related to the offence, and is merely related to 
 the effect it will have on a certain circle of specta- 
 tors. 
 
 ' In our view, punishment ought to be regarded as at 
 once an expiation and a discipline, or, in other words, 
 .an expiatory discipline. This definition includes all 
 I that is valuable in the theories just reviewed, and ex- 
 i eludes all that is imperfect in them. The criminal is 
 I an offender against the fundamental order of society 
 in somewhat the same way as a disobedient child is an 
 ■' offender against the centre of authority in the home 
 or the school. The punishment inflicted on the child 
 may take the form of revenge, or it may take the 
 form of retribution, or it may take the form of deter- 
 rence, but it undoubtedly takes its highest form 
 when it combines expiation with discipline. UPunish- 
 ment of this nature still remains punitive as it ought 
 to do, but it is at the same time a kind of punishment 
 from which something may be learned. It does not 
 merely consist in inflicting pain, although tlie presence 
 of this element is essential to its efficacy ; it consists 
 rather in inflicting pain in such a way as will tend to 
 discipline and reform the character. Such a concep- 
 tion of punishment excludes the barbarous element of 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 205 
 
 vengeance ; it is based upon the civilised ideas of 
 justice and humanity, or rather upon the sentiment of 
 justice alone, for justice is never truly just except 
 when its tendency is also to humanise. 
 
 " Sine caritate justicia 
 Vindicationi similis. " 
 
 From the theory of punishment let us now turn to 
 its methods. The most severe of these is the penalty 
 of death. A great deal has been said and written both 
 for and against the retention of this form of punish- 
 ment. To set forth the arguments on both sides in a fair 
 and adequate manner would require a volume ; it must, 
 therefore, suffice to say that in the field of controversy 
 the contest betweea the opposing parties is a fairly 
 even one. In fact, looking at the matter from a purely 
 r polemical point of view, the advocates of the death 
 penalty have probably the best of it. It has, however, 
 to be remembered that such questions are not solved 
 by battalions of abstract arguments, but by the slow, 
 silent, invisible action of public sentiment. The way 
 in which this impalpable sentiment is moving on the 
 question of the death penalty may be seen, first, in the 
 manner in which crime after crime during the present 
 century has been excluded from the supreme sentence 
 of the law, and secondly, in the steady diminution of 
 capital executions throughout the civilised world. If 
 the present drift of feeling continues for another 
 
2o6 CklME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 generation oi- two it is not at all improbable, in spite 
 of temporary reactions here and tbere, that the 
 question of capital punishment will have solved 
 itself. 
 
 Another form of punishment is transportation. As 
 / far as Great Britain is concerned, transportation pos- 
 sesses only a historic interest. No one is now sent 
 ' out of the country for offences against the law. Ex- 
 perience showed that penal colonies were a failure, 
 \ and that the truly criminal could be more effectively 
 dealt with at home. Within recent years the French 
 have resorted to the system of transportation; but, 
 according to several eminent French authorities, the 
 /penal settlement in New Caledonia is hardly justify- 
 ing the anticipations of its founders. 
 
 Penal servitude has taken the place of transporta- 
 
 Ition in Great Britain. Every person sentenced to a term 
 of five years and over undergoes what is called penal 
 servitude. The sentence is divided into three stages. 
 ; In the first stage tiie offender passes nine months of 
 ibis sentence in one of the local prisons in solitary 
 'confinement. In the next stage he is allowed to work 
 in association with other prisoners ; and in the last 
 stage he is conditionally released before his sentence 
 has actually expired. If a prisoner conducts himself 
 well, if he shows that he is industrious, he will be 
 released at the expiration of about three fourths 
 of his sentence. If, on the other hand, he is idle 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 207 
 
 and ill-conducted, he will have to serve the full 
 term. 
 
 During the first nine months of his confinement the 
 convict sentenced to penal servitude is treated in ex- 
 actly the same way as a person sentenced to a month's 
 imprisonment ; the only difference being that he is 
 provided with better food. During the period of de- i 
 tention in a Public Work's Prison the convict may, if 
 well-conducted, pass through five progressive stages;' 
 each of these stages confers some privileges which the 
 one below it does not possess. The first stage of all\ 
 is called the Probation Class. In this, as well as in 
 every succeeding .class, a man's industry is measured 
 by a process called the Mark system. This system is 
 somewhat similar to the method adopted for reward- 
 ing industry in our public schools. In these schools 
 a boy's diligence is recognised by his receiving so 
 many marks per day, and he would be an ideal pupil 
 who received the maximum number of marks. In 
 convict prisons, on the other hand, the maximum 
 number of marks, which is eight per day, can easily 
 be earned by any person willing to do an average 
 day's work. If a convict earns the maximum number 
 of marks per day for three months he is promoted at 
 the end of that time out of the Probation Class into 
 a higher stage called the Third Class. He must re- 
 main in the third class for, at least, a year ; while 
 in this class he is permitted to receive a visit and to 
 
2o8 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 write and receive a letter every six months. He is 
 also rewarded at the rate of a penny for every 20 
 marks, which enables him to earn twelve shillings in 
 the course of the year. 
 
 After the expiration of one year in the Third Class 
 the prisoner, if he has regularly earned eight marks a 
 day, is advanced to the Second Class. In this stage 
 he can receive a visit and write and receive a letter 
 every four months. He is allowed a little choice 
 in the selection of his breakfast ; the value attached 
 to his marks is also increased, and he is able in the 
 Second Class to earn 18 shillings a year. At the 
 termination of a year, if a prisoner continues his habits 
 of industry, he is promoted to the First Class. Persons 
 whose education is defective are not permitted to enter 
 the First Class, unless they have also made progress in 
 schooling. In the First Class a man is allowed to re- 
 ceive a visit and to write and recei\'e a letter every 
 three months. He is, also given additional privileges 
 in the choice of food. In the First Class he can earn 
 30 shillings a j'ear. 
 
 Above the First Class is a Special Class composed 
 of men whose conduct has been specially exemplary. 
 Men may be admitted into this class 12 months before 
 their liberation ; they may also be placed in positions 
 of trust and responsibility in connection with the 
 prison, and are able to earn a gratuity amounting to 
 six pounds. Such men are, as a matter of course, 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 209 
 
 liberated at the expiration of three fourths of their 
 sentence, which means that a term of five years' 
 penal servitude is reduced to somewhat under four 
 years. 
 
 For female convicts all these rules are modified and 
 mitigated. Isolation is not so strictly enforced ; a 
 female may be liberated at the expiration of two thirds 
 of her sentence; she may also earn four pounds 
 instead of three, which is the highest sum men can 
 receive, except the limited number in the Special 
 Class. Corresponding to the Special Class of male 
 convicts, there is among the females what is called a 
 Refuge Class. Well-conducted women undergoing 
 their first term of penal servitude are placed in this 
 class, and nine months before the date on which they 
 are due for discharge on ordinary licence, that is to 
 say, nine months before they have finished two thirds 
 of their sentence, they are released from prison and 
 placed in some Home for females. Two Homes which 
 receive prisoners of this class are the Elizabeth Fiy 
 Refuge and the London Preventive and Reformatoiy 
 Institution. These Homes receive ten shillings a week 
 for the care of each inmate confided to them by the 
 State, and the time spent there is used as a gradual 
 course of preparation for the re-entrance of these un- 
 fortunate people into ordinary life. According to this 
 method females, after a prolonged period of imprison- 
 ment, are not thrown all of a sudden upon the world ; 
 
 o 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 they re-enter it by slow and imperceptible stages, and 
 are thus enabled to commence life afresh under hope- 
 ful and salutary conditions. 
 
 Male convicts on their release from penal servitude 
 are, if they desire it, assisted to obtain employment 
 by Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies. The way in 
 which assistance is rendered by the Eoyal Society, 
 Charing Cross, which may be considered as a type of 
 most of these societies, is as follows : — 
 
 " The convicts on their discharge are accompanied 
 to the oiEce of the Society by a warder in plain 
 clothes. They are there received by the Secretary 
 and the member of the Committee who, accord- 
 ing to a fixed rota, attends daily for this pur- 
 pose. The first step is to give them a plentiful 
 breakfast of white bread, bacon and hot coffee. When 
 this is finished they are invited to come forward and 
 state their hopes and intentions as to the future. 
 Full particulars of the nature of the crime, the sentence, 
 and the antecedents of the convict have been previously 
 received from the prison, and this information is, of 
 course, of the greatest value as a guide to dealing 
 with the particular case. After friendly discussion 
 with the convict at one or more interviews, and 
 further inquiry, if need be, by the officers of the 
 Society, the course to be taken in each case is decided 
 upon and carried out as soon as possible', either by 
 the officers of the Society or through other agency. 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 
 
 In cases of emigration and other cases wliere it is 
 advisable, the gratuities received from Government 
 are supplemented by donations from the funds of the 
 Society ; and, if not already supplied by the prison 
 authorities, a respectable suit of clothes of a character 
 fitted for the work on which the recipient is to be 
 employed is provided. 
 
 " The cases of men or women who elect to remain 
 in or near the Metropolis are usually dealt with 
 directly by members of the Committee and officers of 
 the Society ; others prefer to seek work for themselves ; 
 but, meanwhile, respectable lodgings are provided till 
 work is obtained. Others who prefer a sea life are 
 sent to the care of agents until ships can be found for 
 them — a few selected cases are sent abroad." In the 
 case of persons proceeding to seek work at a distance 
 from London, the Eoyal Society communicates with 
 Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies in the countrj^' 
 and these Societies take such cases in hand. 
 
 Another admirable Society for dealing with dis- 
 charged convicts is the St. Giles' Mission, Brook 
 St. Ilolborn. This Society provides a home for the 
 person whose sentence has expired ; it is managed by 
 a man (Mr. Wheatley) possessed of an unsurpassed 
 knowledge of the work ; and it is year by year render- 
 ing effective service to the convict population. Some 
 idea of the work accomplished by Societies such as 
 those just mentioned may be gathered from the fact 
 
CRIME AND ITS CA USES. 
 
 that about two thirds of the discharged convicts 
 are annually passing through their hands ; the other 
 third declining or not requiring assistance by such 
 methods. What is wanted to perfect the working of 
 the institutions we are now describing is increased 
 public support ; even now the Royal Society was able 
 to state in one of its reports, "that no discharged 
 convict, who is physically capable and willing to work, 
 has any excuse for relapsing into crime." 
 
 This brief sketch of the manner in which a sentence 
 
 of penal servitude is carried into effect will afford 
 
 some idea of the nature of this method of punishment. 
 
 We shall now proceed to describe another mode of 
 
 dealing with offenders against the fundamental oi-der 
 
 of society. In addition to convict establishments there 
 
 jexists throughout the United Kingdom a large number 
 
 (of places of confinement called Local Prisons. In 
 
 .' England and Wales there are about sixty Local Prisons ; 
 
 { in Scotland there are about twenty ; in Ireland there 
 
 are about eighteen. In Scotland and Ireland persons 
 
 ■ sentenced to a few days' imprisonment are often con- 
 
 •' fined in police cells, in England all convicted offenders 
 
 serve their sentence, however short, in a regular 
 
 Local Prison. 
 
 Before 1877 the Local Prisons of England and 
 Scotland were under the control and administration of 
 the County Magistrates, and almost every county had 
 then its own prison. One of the chief defects of this 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 213 
 
 system was the multiplication of prisons ; one of its 
 chief virtues was that local power kept alive local 
 interest in a way which is impossible with highly 
 centralised machinery. Where prisons are small and 
 numerous, as was to some extent the case under the 
 old system, it is difficult to conduct them so economi- 
 cally ; on the other hand, the herding of great masses] 
 of criminals together in huge establishments is not/ 
 without corresponding evils. It is now being pointed) 
 out by specialists on the Continent and in America 
 that huge prisons destroy the individuality of the 
 prisoner ; his own personality is lost amid the hundreds 
 who surround him ; he sinks into the position of a 
 mere unit, and is obliged to be treated as such by the i 
 officials in charge of him. Under such a system it ; 
 becomes almost impossible to individualise prisoners ; 
 there is no time for it ; as a result, the influence of re- 
 formative agencies descends to a minimum and only 
 tl]e punitive side of justice comes home to the offender. 
 At one time the value of Reformatory Schools was 
 seriously impaired by herding too many lads together 
 under one roof ; it is now seen that the success of these 
 institutions is marred by making them too large ; it 
 is accepted as an established maxim that the smaller 
 the school the better the results. The same principle 
 holds true with respect to prisons. 
 
 When the County Magistrates were deprived of 
 their powers by the last government of Lord Beacons- 
 
214 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 field, these powers were in England vested in the 
 Home Secretary; in Scotland they were latterly 
 vested in the Secretary for Scotland ; in Ireland they 
 are vested in the Chief Secretary. Under each of 
 these Parliamentary heads there is a body called the 
 Prison Commissioners or Prison Board. These Com- 
 missioners are centred in London for England ; in 
 Edinburgh for Scotland ; in Dublin for Ireland. 
 Under them is a body of Prison Inspectors, and last of 
 all there comes the actual working staff of the Local 
 Prisons, consisting of warders, schoolmasters, clerks, 
 governors, chaplains, and doctors. 
 
 Wherein does the Local Prison system as worked by 
 this staff differ from the system in operation in con- 
 vict prisons ? Perhaps the difference will be best 
 expressed by saying that work in association is the 
 centre of the convict system, while work in solitude is 
 the central idea of the Local Prison system. This 
 definition is not absolutely correct, for convicts, as we 
 have seen, are subjected to nine months' solitary 
 confinement at the outset of their sentence, and in 
 some Local Prisons a certain amount of work in 
 common is performed, but, taken as a whole, work in 
 common is the central principle of the one ; work in 
 solitude the central principle of the other. 
 
 Work in solitude means that the prisoner is shut 
 up in an apartment by himself which is called his 
 cell. Each cell is provided with an adequate supply 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 215 
 
 of air and light, and is heated in the winter up to a 
 sufficiently high temperature for health and comfort. 
 The cell contains a bed and other personal requisites ; 
 it also contains a copy of the prison rules. Before 
 the prisoner is finally allocated to a certain cell he is 
 seen by all the superior officers of the prison. His 
 state of health is inquired into, so as to determine the 
 nature of his -work, and if he is not too old to learn, 
 and has received a sentence of sufficient length to 
 make it worth while instructing him, his educational 
 capabilities are specially tested. The seclusion of 
 the cell is varied by a short service in the prison 
 chapel every morning and an hour's exercise in the 
 forenoon. It is further varied in the case of young 
 boys by daily attendance at the prison school. 
 
 The cellular system is an application of the old 
 monastic system to the treatment of criminals. The 
 first cellular prison was built in Eome by Pope 
 Clement XT. at the commencement of the eighteenth 
 century ; its design was taken from a monastery. 
 The idea passed from Rome to the Puritans of 
 Pennsylvania ; and it has now taken root in all parts^ 
 of the civilised world. The believers in the cellular' 
 system say that it prevents prisoners from contami-1 
 nating each other ; it prevents the hardened criminal 
 from getting hold of the comparative novice ; accord- 
 ing to this system, although the offender is in a prison, 
 the only persons he is permitted to speak to are those ) 
 
216 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 whose lives are free from crime. A prison system 
 which has the negative value of hindering men from 
 becoming worse is worthy of high consideration, and 
 if the chief object of imprisonment is the punishment 
 of criminals the cellular system will not be easily sur- 
 passed. On the other hand, if the purpose of im- 
 Ipiisonment is not only to punish but also to prepare 
 the offender for the duties of society, the system of 
 'solitary confinement, will not effectually accomplish 
 this task. On this point let me refer to the words of 
 M. Prins, the eminent Director General of Belgian 
 ■risons : " Can we teach a man sociability," he says, 
 ' t>.y gi'vi'ig lii™ ^ cell only, that is to say, the opposite 
 of social life, by taking away from him the very 
 appearance of moral discipline ; by regulating from 
 morning till night the smallest details of his day, all 
 his movements and all his thoughts ? Is not this to 
 place him outside the conditions of existence, and to 
 un teach him that liberty for which we pretend he is 
 being prepared ? . . . Assuredly, let us not forget that 
 prisons contain incorrigible and corrupt recidivists, 
 the residuum of large towns who must undoubtedly be 
 isolated from other 'inen ; but they also contain 
 offenders resembling in great part men of their own 
 class living outside. ... If it was a question of making 
 these men good scholars, good workmen, good soldiers, 
 should we accept the method of prolonged cellular 
 isolation ? And how can that which is condemned by 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 217 
 
 the experience of ordinary lite become useful on the 
 day some tribunal jjronounces a sentence of imprison- 
 ment ? The physiological and moral inconveniences of 
 prolonged solitude are evident in other ways ; and 
 attempts are made to combat them by great humanity 
 in external things. So much is this the case, that for 
 fear of being cruel to the good, the bad are also 
 pampered by an exaggerated philanthropy which 
 reaches absurd heights." 
 
 A compromise between the absolute seclusion of the 
 cellular system, and the system of free association, is 
 now being advocated by some students of prison 
 discipline. Prisoners, it is contended, should be care- 
 fully classified according to their previous character 
 and the nature of their offence, and also according to 
 the disposition they manifest in prison. Prisoners 
 sentenced to a term of imprisonment ranging from 
 three months to two years should during the first 
 three months remain in solitary confinement for 
 purposes of observation as to diligence and character- 
 At the end of that period a man, if he showed fitness 
 for it, would be placed in association during his 
 working hours, and in his cell during the remainder 
 of the day. In this way his social instincts would 
 not be so completely stifled as they are at present ; he 
 would not be so entirely left to the vacuity of his own 
 mind ; he would not be so readily led to the indulgence 
 of disgusting vices ruinous to body and mind. In 
 
2i8 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 countries where prisons are on a large scale such a 
 system as this might easily be adopted, and it would, 
 if properly managed, be productive of beneficial 
 results. In small prisons it would be applicable on a 
 limited scale, the smallness of the prison population 
 preventing proper classification. 
 
 But all prison systems, however excellent in theory, 
 are comparatively useless unless conducted in an 
 enlightened spirit by competent and sagacious officials. 
 The best of systems if worked, as sometimes happens, 
 by a mere martinet, with no horizon beyond insisting 
 on the letter of official regulations, will be productive 
 of no good whatever, and, on the other hand, an 
 indifferent system will achieve excellent results with 
 a competent person at the head of it. This was 
 admirably pointed out by the head of the Danish 
 Prison Department at the Stockholm Prison Congress. 
 '•■ Give me," he said, " the best possible regulations and 
 a bad director, and you will have no success. But give 
 lue a good director, and, even with mediocre regula- 
 tions, I will answer for it that everything will go on 
 marvellously." In a recent handbook on prison 
 management by Herr Krohne, an eminent prison 
 director in the German service, the qualifications 
 requisite for successful pi'ison work are clearly laid 
 down. 
 
 The successful management of a prison, he says, 
 "demands special knowledge and ability. This 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 219 
 
 knowledge should first of all consist in a compre- 
 hensive general education, so that the head of a 
 prison may be able to form a competent opinion in all 
 tliose branches of knowledge which bear upon the 
 punishment of crime. He thus stands on a footing of 
 equality with his subordinates. If he is deficient in 
 this knowledge he will not be able to carry out the 
 sentences of the law efficiently, and the maintenance 
 of his official authority will be encumbered with diffi- 
 culties. He must also possess an understanding of 
 the economic and social causes of crime as well as 
 of its individual causes. An understanding of its/ 
 economic and social causes supposes that he shouldl 
 be acquainted with the principles of sociology and 
 political economy ; an understanding of its individual 
 causes supposes that he should know something of 
 psychology. The historical, philosophic, and legal 
 aspects of criminal jurisprudence as well as its formal 
 contents ought not to be unknown ground. In the 
 domain of prison science he should be thoroughly at 
 home. He ought to be acquainted with the historical 
 development of punishment by imprisonment, as well 
 as with the nature of the various prison systems in 
 existence among modern civilised communities. He 
 ought to have a clear understanding of the aim and 
 object of imprisonment, and be thoroughly cognisant 
 of the legal and administrative arrangements by 
 which it is effected, more especially those of his own 
 
220 CRIME AND ITS CAUSMS. 
 
 State. He should possess a competent knowledge of 
 all matters and regulations bearing upon prison 
 administration, so that his own arrangements may be 
 based upon a ripened judgment. 
 
 " This knowledge in the head of a prison should 
 show itself in his manner of dealing with prisoners. 
 This task demands a high degree of pedagogic skill, 
 and a force of character which is able, easily and 
 quickly, to bend the will of others to his own. He 
 should also possess the power of setting every branch 
 of the administration to rights whenever anything 
 happens to have gone wrong. He must have a quick 
 eye for all that is being done ; he must see everything ; 
 he must hear everything ; nothing should escape him ; 
 and still he ought to leave independence and initia- 
 tive to every officer in his own department. He 
 should respect and bear with the individual character- 
 istics of every officer, especially the superior officers, 
 so that they may be able to perform their duties with 
 pleasure. In this way all officers will be able to do 
 their work in his spirit rather than according to his 
 orders. In order to succeed in this, the head of a 
 prison should consult with the other officials on all 
 important matters ; a daily conference is best for this 
 purpose. He should hear and weigh their opinions 
 even when the ultimate decision rests entirely in his 
 hands. Above all he must understand how to keep 
 peace among the officials, so that through their har- 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 
 
 monious co-operation the objects of a i^rison may be 
 more certainly attained. 
 
 "A good prison chief," Herr Krohne continues, "is not 
 matured or educated, but discovered. On this account, 
 the selection of persons ought not to be narrowed 
 down to any definite class or profession. Experience 
 has shown that able prison governors have been 
 drawn from all callings ; from the law, from public 
 offices, from the army, from medicine, from the Church, 
 from trade, from agriculture, from merchants and 
 manufacturers. From each of these occupations a 
 man may bring knowledge and ability which makes 
 him suitable for the position. His preparatory 
 studies will teach him much, but he will learn most 
 from actual practice, and he will never finish learning, 
 however experienced he may become. But the root 
 of the matter which can never be taught is a heart 
 for the miserable ; a determination in spite of failures 
 and disappointments to despair of no man and no- 
 thing."! 
 
 Italy up to the present time is almost the only, 
 country in which prison officers receive any preliminary ' 
 training for their duties. As a result of this, it not in- 
 frequently happens, as Mr. Clay has shown, that an ^ 
 inexperienced person suddenly placed in absolute ' 
 charge of a number of prisoners will in a few days/* 
 
 1 Lehrhuch der Gefangniskunde von K. Krohne Strafanstalts- 
 director, pp. 534-6. 
 
CRIME AND ITS CA USES. 
 
 destroy almost all the reformative work of montlis and 
 perhaps years. The late Baron von HoltzendorfF was 
 of a similar opinion, holding that one man can in a 
 short time undo the work of ten. So much has this 
 been felt, that Dr. von Jageman and several other 
 eminent prison authorities on the Continent maintain 
 that no man should be placed in charge of prisoners 
 till he has had some previous training in the nature of 
 his duties. It has been truly pointed out that the 
 value of imprisonment depends to an enormous extent 
 on the qualifications of the person placed in im- 
 mediate charge of the convicted men. Others are 
 with them occasionally, he is with them all day long, 
 and unless he comes to his task with a full knowledge 
 of the delicate and difficult nature of the duties he 
 has to perform, he will probably exercise a mischiev- 
 ous and irritating influence on the prisoners com- 
 mitted to his charge. On the other hand, a well- 
 instructed officer can work wonders in the way of 
 good ; while insisting with inflexible firmness on the 
 rules of discipline, he is able at the same time by tact 
 and kindliness to diffuse a moralising atmosphere 
 around him. Some men can do this by instinct, but 
 the majority require to be taught ; it is therefore most 
 essential that every person entrusted with the control 
 of prisoners should have some previous theoretical 
 instruction in his duties. After all, those who can do 
 most real good to prisoners are the warders immedi- 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 
 
 ately in charge of them. Visits from persons outside I 
 who talie an interest in the outcast and fallen, are, 1 
 according to French experience, comparatively worth- j 
 less.^ These visits are well meant, but they are not! 
 paid by the class of people to which the prisoner as a! 
 rule belongs ; the gulf between the visitor and the 
 visited is too great for the establishment of that inner 
 sympathy on which the permanent success of moralis- 
 ing efforts so greatly depends, and it is easy for such a 
 visitor to do more harm than good. On the other hand, 
 if you have a competent and well-instructed class of 
 warders, if you have these men trained to regard their 
 duties from an elevated point of view, you possess 
 in them a body of men who are not separated from 
 prisoners by impassable barriers ; you have compara- 
 tively little in the way of social antecedents to es- 
 trange the prisoner from the person in charge of him : 
 such being tlie case it is easy for the two men to under- 
 stand each other, and is, therefore a relatively simple 
 matter for the one to influence the other for good. 
 
 What is to be done with offenders when their term 
 of punishment has expired ? This is a question which 
 modern society finds it exceedingly difficult to solve. 
 What is the use of punishing a delinquent for offences 
 ao'ainst the law if, the moment his sentence is com- 
 pleted, he is sent back again into the surroundings 
 which led to his fall. So long as his surroundi-ngs are 
 1 Eewte des Dtux-Monde.s, avril, 15, 1887. 
 
224 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 the same, his acts will be the same, unless his mind 
 Ihas passed through a revolution during detention in 
 I gaol. The latter event, it must be admitted, some- 
 ' times does happen, although it is not easy in these 
 days to get the v^^orld to believe it. And when it 
 does happen it is marvellous to see how men, through 
 their own unaided efforts, will redeem their character 
 and wipe out the blot upon their life. But many 
 offenders pass through little or no change of mind, 
 and unless delivered from their surroundings they will 
 continue to fall. Here, however, comes in the diffi- 
 culty. Many of these people love their surroundings ; 
 they have no desire to change ; a life of squalor among 
 squalid companions is not distasteful to them ; on the 
 contrary, they will refuse to leave old haunts no 
 matter what inducements are offered them elsewhere. 
 It is hardly possible to do anything with these 
 offenders, and they unfortunately constitute at least 
 one fourth of the criminal population. Such persons 
 return again and again to prisons ; and the manager of 
 an important Prisoners' Aid Society in a great 
 northern city, says, that to aid them " is a mere waste 
 of money, if not an encouragement to vice.''^ How to 
 
 1 At a recent meeting of the Statistical Society, Mr. Murray 
 Browne gave some interesting information respecting the work 
 of Prisoners' Aid Societies among habitual offenders. " A ques- 
 tion," he said, " had been addressed to all Discharged Prisoners' 
 Aid Societies asking what was their experience with regard to 
 prisoners who had been four times arrested but not sentenced to 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 225 
 
 leal with persons of this description is a most tanta- 
 ising problem. More vigorous methods of punisli- 
 iient are sometimes advocated as the proper 
 nanner of deterring these habitual and incorrigible 
 jffenders, but if we consider the constitution and 
 mtecedents of most of them, it becomes perfectly 
 jertain that such means will not effect the end in view. 
 ^s a matter of fact, most of them are not adapted to 
 ;he conditions of existence which prevail in a free 
 society. Some of them might have passed through 
 life fairly well in a more primitive stage of social de-( 
 velopment, as, for example, in the days of slavery or ; 
 serfdom, but they are manifestly out of place in an/ 
 age of unrestricted freedom, when a man may work or 
 remain idle just as he chooses. A society based upon 
 the principle of individual liberty is a society of whicli 
 the members are supposed to be gifted with the 
 virtues of prudence, industry, and self-control ; virtues 
 of this nature are indeed essential to the existence of 
 such a form of society. Unfortunately, a certain 
 portion of its members do not possess them even in an 
 elementary degree, and no amount of seclusion in 
 
 penal servitude, and had been arrested during a given period, 
 say a year. How many of them has turned out (a) satisfactory, 
 (b) unsatisfactory, (c) re-con vioted? Detailed replies were received 
 from fifteen different societies, not all working in the same way, 
 or with the same machinery, giving a total of 253 such cases. Of 
 these only 95 were reported as satisfactory, 55 were reported as 
 unsatisfactory, 6G were re-convicted, 37 being unknown or un- 
 locounted for." 
 
226 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 prison will ever confer these qualities upon them. 
 Imprisonment, to be followed by liberty, however 
 rigorous it is made, is accordingly no solution of the 
 difficulty ; the only effective way of dealing with the 
 incorrigible vagrant, drunkard, and thief, is by some 
 system of permanent seclusion in a penal colony. All 
 men are not fitted for freedom, and so long as society 
 acts on the supposition that they are, it will never 
 get rid of the incorrigible criminal. 
 
 It has also to be remembered that a considerable 
 proportion of incorrigible offenders are not only 
 mentally but also physically unfitted to earn their 
 living in a free community. Almost always without 
 a trade, and very often the children of diseased and 
 degenerate parents, the only kind of work which they 
 can turn to is rude manual labour, and this is exactly 
 the kind of work they have not the requisite physical 
 strength to perform. It is only in skilled trades that 
 the physically weak have a chance at all, and if a 
 feeble person is not a skilled artisan he will, unless 
 possessed of superior mental gifts, find it rather a hard 
 matter to earn a comfortable livelihood. Should it be 
 the case that such a person is below the average in 
 body and mind, to earn a livelihood becomes almost an 
 impossibility. Now, this is exactly the position of 
 many habitual criminals, and more especially of that 
 large class of them which is being continually con- 
 victed and reconvicted of petty offences. What can 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 227 
 
 be said of them, except to repeat that they are unfit 
 to take a part in working the modern industrial 
 machine ; what can be done with them except to 
 seclude them in such a way that they will be no 
 longer able to injure those who can work it. 
 
 Outside the ranks of the incorrigible and incapable 
 there exists a large class of offenders who are perfectly 
 able to earn a honest living in the world. In many 
 cases it happens that such men require no assistance on 
 their liberation from prison ; they can resume work 
 immediately their sentence has expired. All that is 
 needed is to send them back to the district they were 
 tried in, and this is what is always done if a man 
 cannot reach his destination by mid-day on the morn- 
 ing of his liberation. But in a certain number of 
 cases discharged prisoners require more than this ; 
 they require tools, or clothes, or property redeemed 
 from pledge, or a lodging, or to be sent a long dis- 
 tance home, or to be emigrated. In each and all of 
 these cases, persons who are not incorrigible criminals 
 are assisted to the best of their ability and the extent 
 of their funds by Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies. 
 One or more of these admirable institutions is at- 
 tached to every Local Prison, and every year a vast 
 amount of quiet, conscientious work is performed. 
 These societies are voluntary agencies formed for the 
 relief of discharged prisoners. Their funds are de- 
 rived partly from private subscriptions and donations, 
 
228 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 partly from ancient bequests, and partly from a small 
 sum annually voted by Parliament. They are con- 
 ducted on the most economic principles, the gentlemen 
 who form the committee or who act as secretaries and 
 treasurers being mostly magistrates and men of sub- 
 stance, who gladly give their time and services for 
 nothing. The only person who has to be paid is an 
 agent whose duty it is to see that the recommenda- 
 tions of the committee with respect to assisting the 
 discharged prisoners are carried into effect. 
 
 A glance at the work of one of these societies will 
 be the best way of forming a conception of their use- 
 fulness as a whole. For this purpose let us select the 
 Surrey and South London Discharged Prisoners' Aid 
 Society. In the prison in which the work of this 
 excellent society is conducted, 17 per cent, of the 
 prison population applied for aid in 1887, and 10 per 
 cent, were assisted, the 7 per cent, refused assistance 
 were habitual offenders, and bad often been previously 
 helped. Of the number assisted, consisting of 969 
 persons, 54 were sent to sea, 2 were assisted to emigrate, 
 913 were assisted in the way of redemption of tools, 
 purchase of stock, purchase of clothing, and so on. In 
 1888, 929 persons were assisted, 64 were sent to sea, 
 4 were helped to emigrate, and 871 aided in other 
 ways. In 18S9, assistance was rendered in 1009 cases 
 of these 36 wei-e sent to sea, and 973 otherwise aided. 
 The average cost per head of sending cases to sea is 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OB CRIME. 229 
 
 three pounds, fourteen shillings ; the average cost in 
 other cases is half a guinea. 
 
 What is being done by the Surrey Society is only 
 a sample of the assistance rendered to discharged 
 prisoners all over England. It ought also to be 
 stated that some of these Aid Societies undertake to 
 look after the destitute families of persons committed 
 to prison, and cases innumerable might be mentioned 
 in which prisoners' wives and children have been 
 assisted and kept out of the workhouse until the 
 release of the bread-winner. Other societies again 
 provide permanent homes for destitute offenders on 
 their discharge from prison. All that is required of 
 persons making use of these homes is, that they shall 
 earn as much as will cover a portion of the expense 
 of providing them with food and shelter. For this 
 purpose work is always provided for them, or if they 
 prefer it, they may find occupation outside and make 
 the home a sort of temporary resting-place. It is 
 hardly necessary to add that Prisoners' Aid Societies 
 could effect much more if they were better supported 
 by the ijublic. The organisation is there ; the men to 
 work it are there; the only impediment to their labours 
 is a lack of funds. If the possession of adequate funds 
 enabled all the Prisoners' Aid Societies to establish 
 Homes for discharged prisoners, these institutions 
 might be made of the greatest service to the cause of 
 justice generally. It would then be easy to get a 
 
230 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 return from them of the number of persons whose 
 criminal life was due to sheer indolence, and magis- 
 trates would have far less hesitation in dealing with 
 them than they do now. At the present time, it is 
 sometimes difficult to know whether an offender is 
 willing to work if he had the opportunity, but the 
 existence of prisoners' homes would soon solve the 
 question. Reference to a man's record in one of these 
 institutions would at once place the magistrate in full 
 possession of the facts, and he would be able to give 
 judgment with a knowledge of the offender he does 
 not now possess. In this way many cruel mistakes 
 might be avoided ; and, on the other hand, many 
 hardened offenders dealt with in a more effective 
 manner. 
 
 The difficulty sometimes encountered by discharged 
 prisoners in finding employment, as well as many 
 other evils inseparable from imprisonment, has, in 
 recent years, led an increasing number of jurists to 
 the conclusion that every other method of punishment 
 should, when the case at all admits of it, be exhausted 
 before the gaol is resorted to. " The very first 
 principle of enlightened penology," says Mayhew, " is 
 to endeavour- to keep people out of prison as long 
 as possible, rather than thrust them into it for the 
 most trivial offences." In many instances it is quite 
 suflicient punishment for a first offender in a petty 
 case to be publicly rebuked in the police court. Such 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 
 
 a rebuke preceded, as it generally is, by a night's con- 
 finement in the police cells, is just as effective as a 
 deterrent and far less likely to do permanent harm 
 than a sentence of imprisonment. It was something 
 of this kind which Bacon had in view, when he says, 
 respecting criminal courts : " Let there be power also 
 to inflict a note or mark ; such, I mean, as shall not 
 extend to actual punishment, but may end either in 
 admonition only, or in a light disgrace ; punishing the 
 offender as it were with a blush." ^ A certain amount 
 of progress has been made of late in this direction, 
 but there is still ample room for more. On the other 
 hand, experience has shown that light punishments 
 are of no avail against habitual offenders. For the 
 last few years this system has been in operation in 
 the borough of Liverpool, with the result that the 
 number of known thieves apprehended for indictable 
 crimes has almost doubled within a comparatively 
 short period. According to the Chief Constable's 
 Report, the numbers were, in — 
 
 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 
 
 377 470 533 596 731 
 
 These figures show that habitual criminals will not 
 
 be deterred by light sentences, but rather emboldened 
 
 in their sinister career. 
 
 1 De Augmentis VIIT. Aphorism 40. 
 
 THE END. 
 
APPENDICES TO CRIME A^^D ITS 
 
 CAUSES. 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 Form suggested by Herr Krohne to be filled up by the police 
 or other ageuoy respecting prisoners for trial. 
 
 1. BiKTH. 
 
 Place ? County ? Country 
 
 Date? 
 
 Legitimate ? or illegitimate 
 
 2. TJPBKINGING. 
 
 By parents ? 
 
 By others ? 
 
 In a public institution ? 
 
 3. Schooling. 
 School attendance, 
 
 regular or not ? 
 Knowledge, Extent of ? 
 Confirmed, or not ? 
 Religious belief ? 
 
 4. Occupation. 
 What trade 1 
 
 Served Apprenticeship, or not ? 
 
 5. Military Training. 
 Whether served ? and where I 
 
 6. Imprisonments. 
 How many ? 
 
 In Local Prisons ? 
 In Penal Servitude ? 
 Other Punishments ? 
 
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 7. Pauentage. 
 
 Name ? Abode ? Occupation ? 
 
 Alive or Dead ? 
 
 Cause of death ? Suicide ? 
 
 Temperate, or not ? 
 
 Imprisoned, or not ? 
 
 Were Parents related ? 
 
 8. Brothers and Sisters. 
 Name ? Age ? Abode ? 
 Occupation ?■ 
 
 How many dead ? and of 
 
 what diseases ? Suicide % 
 Imprisoned, or not ? 
 Temperate, or not ? 
 
 9. Means of Living. 
 With or Without ? 
 Destitute ? 
 
 A Pauper ? 
 A Beggar ? 
 
 10. Individual Characteristics. 
 Character ? Temperament ? 
 Mental Capacity ? 
 
 Habits ? Drunken or other ? 
 Indolent ? 
 
 11. Mental and Bodily State. 
 
 (a) Pits or Convulsions in Childhood, 
 Epilepsy, St. Vitus Dance, or 
 other nervous diseases ? 
 
 Insanity ? Scrofula ? Tuberculosis % 
 (h) Mental and bodily state of near 
 
 relations same as above ? 
 
 12. Married. 
 
 Maiden name of wife ? 
 
 Imprisoned ? 
 
 If Children ; How many ? 
 
 Age, and state of Health ? 
 
 How many dead ? 
 
 Of what Disease ? 
 
 Any imprisoned ? 
 
 The Home good, or bad ? 
 
APPENDICES TO CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 235 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 Growth of Reformatory and Industrial School Population in 
 England and Scotland 
 
 • 
 
 Year. 
 
 Eeformatory 
 Schools. 
 
 Industiial Schools 
 
 (Including Truant 
 
 Schools). 
 
 Day Industrial 
 Schools. 
 
 1859 
 
 3,276 
 
 
 
 1860 
 
 3,702 
 
 
 
 1861 
 
 4,133 
 
 
 
 1862 
 
 4,283 
 
 
 
 1863 
 
 4,302 
 
 
 
 1864 
 
 4,286 
 
 1,668 
 
 
 1865 
 
 4,508 
 
 1,952 
 
 
 1866 
 
 4,798 
 
 2,462 
 
 
 1867 
 
 5,110 
 
 3,802 
 
 
 1868 
 
 5,320 
 
 5,562 
 
 
 1869 
 
 5,480 
 
 6,974 
 
 
 1870 
 
 5,433 
 
 8,280 
 
 
 1871 
 
 5,419 
 
 9,421 
 
 
 1872 
 
 5,575 
 
 10,185 
 
 
 1873 
 
 5,621 
 
 11,012 
 
 
 1874 
 
 5,688 
 
 11,409 
 
 
 1875 
 
 5,615 
 
 11,776 
 
 
 1876 
 
 5,634 
 
 12,555 
 
 
 1877 
 
 5,935 
 
 13,494 
 
 
 1878 
 
 5,963 
 
 14,106 
 
 
 1879 
 
 5,975 
 
 14,847 
 
 287 
 
 1880 
 
 5,927 
 
 15,136 
 
 1,006 
 
 1881 
 
 6,738 
 
 16,955 
 
 1,493 
 
 1882 
 
 6,601 
 
 17,614 
 
 1,692 
 
 1883 
 
 6,557 
 
 18,780 
 
 2,083 
 
 1884 
 
 6,360 
 
 19,483 
 
 1,876 
 
 1885 
 
 6,241 
 
 20,250 
 
 2,324 
 
 1886 
 
 6,272 
 
 20,668 
 
 2,444 
 
 1887 
 1888 
 
 6,127 
 5,984 
 
 20,940 
 21,426 
 
 2,622 
 2,783 
 
 1889 
 
 5,940 
 
 21,059 
 
 3,197 
 
236 
 
 CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 Return showing the number of Prisoners committed to the 
 Local Prisons of England and Wales in each Month of tlie Year 
 ended 31st March, 1890. 
 
 Month. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1889. April 
 
 10,701 
 
 • 3,401 
 
 14,102 
 
 May 
 
 11,777 
 
 4,123 
 
 15,900 
 
 June 
 
 9,977 
 
 3,717 
 
 13,694 
 
 July 
 
 11,499 
 
 4,171 
 
 15,670 
 
 August 
 
 10,894 
 
 3,965 
 
 14,859 
 
 September 
 
 11,113 
 
 4,088 
 
 15,201 
 
 October 
 
 11,670 
 
 4,245 
 
 15,915 
 
 November 
 
 10,615 
 
 3,777 
 
 14,392 
 
 December 
 
 9,154 
 
 3,157 
 
 12,311 
 
 1890. January 
 
 9,993 
 
 3,154 
 
 13,147 
 
 February 
 
 8,990 
 
 3,037 
 
 12,027 
 
 March 
 
 10,052 
 
 3,196 
 
 13,248 
 
 Total 
 
 126,435 
 
 44,031 
 
 170,466