CAUSES OF CRIME.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 267, 4 August 1908, Page 7

CAUSES OF CRIME.

——» . INTERESTING LIFE HISTORIES OF ■ PRISONERS. ' Tho foature of the annual report of the Prison Commissioners for Scotland is the statemont that last year no sentence of penal servitude was passed on a femalo. This is the. first time that this has happened. On tho other hand, tho number of men sent to penal servitude was 122. compared with an average of, 75 in tho previous ten years. The total number of committals to prison was 61;312, an increase of 1100, but three- . quarters of thn sentences imposed did not excoed fourteen days. Short lifo histories of GO prisonors, 30 male and 30 female, are given. One-third confess that one or both parents were given to drink. Tho "upbringing of one-half was affected by tho doath of a parent while tho prisoner was young. This is statod to bo an important fact;. Tho upbringing of tho 60 cases js put down as 20. cases good, 26 neglected, and 14 bad. Tho occupations' of tho father woro about equally divided between tradesmen'ai)d labourers, only five boing of a slightly superior class. Threo-quartors of the 00 when young attended Sunday schools, but less than one-half passed on to bo Church members; 23 Wfiro well educated, 18 fairly, 16 poorly, and three woro illiterate. Only four had an education of tlio higher class. About ono-tlnrd had been taught a trado and kept at it. In 40 cases tho cause of tho breakdown was drinking, brought about chiefly by bad company when they woro botweon 16 and 20 years of ago, and in sovon easos by unfortunate marriages. Eight had never boon in prison before, but tho remaining 52 had together 732 previous convictions, and for 240 of these foUr women woro responsible,