Crime and Its Causes | Page 8

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.
[9] _American Prisons_, 1888.
These formidable figures afford ample food for reflection. Apart from
its danger to the community, the annual loss of money which 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 on
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 be
immediately realised. Unhappily, it is almost as vain to look forward to
the