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Page 22
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 the 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 sate when the days are short and the nights
long.
But while property, on the whole, in 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 inclined to draw, from the fact that there are more
indictable offences--that is to say, offences not tried by a
magistrate, but by a judge and jury--in the six months between October
and March than in the summer 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
very 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 calculated 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 procured 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 Vagrancy Acts which swell the
prison statistics in winter. Most of the offenders against these acts
are people who seize the opportunity afforded by the bitter weather of
appealing 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 accordingly 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
inconsiderate 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, that any considerable rise of temperature has a
tendency, as far as Europeans and their descendants are 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 another. While 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 existence; and to recognise their existence not merely in
others, but also in themselves. It is, unfortunately, 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 convicted men; it should be remembered by them that in summer
their tempers are more 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.
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