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Page 37
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 always 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-diffused 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 to commit crime
than is to be found in older countries. This is, to a certain extent,
true, but the difference is not so great as might at first sight be
supposed. Assuming that the criminal age lies between 15 and 60, we
find that in the seven Australasian colonies 563 persons out of every
1,000 are alive between these two ages. In Great Britain 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 compared with the mother country, is very small, and
is quite insufficient to account for the relatively high percentage of
crime exhibited by the Victorian criminal statistics.
All these considerations force us back to the conclusion 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 prosperity tomorrow.
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 population of the
country. According to the investigations of Mr. Charles Booth, as
contained in his work on East London, the working classes constitute
about 92 per cent. in the districts be 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 demonstrate 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 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 be 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
drunkenness and assault were punished 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.
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