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Page 7
[7] SERIOUS CASES REPORTED TO THE POLICE IN PROPORTION TO THE
POPULATION. ANNUAL AVERAGE FOR FIVE YEARS:--
Murder. Attempts to Murder. Manslaughter
1870-74 1 to 196,946 1 to 441,158 1 to 92,756
1884-88 1 to 168,897 1 to 418,923 1 to 116,463
Shooting, Stabbing, &c. Burglary. Housebreaking.
1870-74 1 to 35,033 1 to 10,188 1 to 17,538
1884-88 1 to 38,007 1 to 7,892 1 to 11,911
Robbery. Arson.
1870-74 1 to 43,247 1 to 54,075
1884-88 1 to 70,767 1 to 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 decrease in
shooting, stabbing, wounding, &c., is very small. (Cf. _Judicial
Statistics_ for 1874 and 1888, p. xvi.)
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
relation in which crime stands to the population. Crime may be
increasing, but the population may be multiplying 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 position 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 ago. If we remember the immense
development that has taken place in the industrial school system
within the last twenty years--a development that has undoubtedly had a
great deal to do with keeping down crime--we arrive at the conclusion
that, notwithstanding 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 Industrial 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 admission 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
institutions has more than trebled since 1868,[8] 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.
[8] See Appendix II.
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 expense; and there is no country in Europe where it
does not constitute a tremendous drain upon the 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.[9] In the United Kingdom the cost of criminal justice and
administration 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. Reformatory and Industrial 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 portion 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 than seven and a half millions
sterling. In addition to this enormous sum, it has also to he
remembered that a great loss of property 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 reports, it cannot fall
short of a million sterling per annum.
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