INCREASE OF CRIME.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1077, 16 March 1911, Page 6

INCREASE OF CRIME.

ASCRIBED. TO PUBLIC SENTIMENT. COMPASSION MISPLACED, i- A Blue Book was issued by tho Home n Offico on February 2 last, containing a statistics.relating to crime, in England in the year 1909. In an introduction to (ho ■, various tables and-figures Mr. 11. B. i- Simpson, of. tho. }{omo Office, says (hat tho hjgh figure for crimp 'which was a a. marked feature-in the statistics.of 1908 is - again, apparent in .the 190'J figures. In 1908 :, the total number of persons'tried for ih- , dictablo offences was 08,111), a larger nuni- - ber than in any previous year for. which > figures are available..ln 19011,. though not } so large an in 1908, it was 67,1-10, which is considerably larger than in any year be- [ foro 1908.. I'or the five years 189-1-8 the i annual average was 52,208; for 1809-1903 it f was 55,018, ior 190-1-8 it 'wasl>2.ooo; and - for 1009 it was 07,119. But,., says Mr. : Simpson, the full significance of theso tig- > ures can bo appreciated only if the statisl tics for a. considerable period back are ■ tak?n into account, From 1857 to IWJ • tho number of persons tried for indicti able crime fluctuated from year to year in a manner thnt is scarcely capable or explanation, except to a partial extent during the years 1880-82. From 1882 to 1899, on the other hand, the figures show a strong tendency to decrease, but if the ' whole of the period 1857-99 be taken no series will bo found of moro than four ' years, together during which crime cither : increased "or , '"■'decreased, ''continuously. Since 1899 in. progress ,in the'.figures, appears that is more. marked and regular than any that had been noticed before. It 1906 "tho figures fell below. that for 1905 or 1901, but it was higher than in any other year since 188*; it rose again in 1907, and in IGOB reached a. higher point- than had ever been reached before; . ■ v ' "If," says Mr.. Simpson, "we look at crime iu "proportion . to. population, the same'fact nrescnts-itself in-.a -different way; during last century..the. proportion of ■•crime, to pomilntion tended to fall, during this century it has risen." \ In tho introduction to tho statistics of .1908 reasons were given for. attributing the abnormal increase of 6735, or nearly 11 per cent., over 1907 to passing causes, and in particular to the state of trade and employment in 1908, and it was shown that the increase of crime was specially apparent in the counties mainly affected by tho strikes which formed a prominent feature of that year.. So far. as this is concerned, in 1909 the abnormal conditions we're" no longer nrcscnt. Such .influence rs strikes' may have exercised •on tho.' amount ofcrimmality in-1908 was greatly

lessened in 1909. ' ■ : ' .' - It is no doubt probable that an increase or decrease .of criine in a single year as compared with the preceding year may be in part attributable to industrial causes and. the condition, of tho country generally, but it would, Mr. Simpson thinks, be impossible to obtain any series of. figures bearing ;on the general, condition of the-, country that would, at all coincide with the remarkable series', of figures relating to crime which, is now under consideration. . These point to a , , steady increase of criminality during, the last ten .years .'which. is more marked than at any previous period for which similar statistics are available; . It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that:during these years some cause favourable to crime has been regularly ■at work which' before then cither did not exist at "all or did , not exercise 'sufficient'.influence to. .affect the figure's.' Moreover,' it can starcoly..be. .doubted that there is a .growing' indisposition,to prosecute, for afferices-of .the-, less', serious.,kind,' a growing, .'inclination- , towards., leniency to first, offenders;..! growing reluctance to takethe trouble .to prosecute . a thief who, if he is convicted, is likely .to bo, let off with little or no punishment; and it is consequently ..probable that the real increase in crime, has.been .even greater than is shown by the. figures relating to. the number of.'.'persons ..prosecuted! The increase, of crime is diie , not. so much to an increase in the. numbers of habitual criminals, but.to criminality having become somewhat more prevalent than it formerly was in -the community generally. , . . Sentiment Towards Criminals. As to tho increase, of crime generally since 1899,. the. figures leave, no room for doubt. If, ,tlieri,'. the warfare against crime, has been .waged with less'success during the first years of the present century, than it was in the years, preceding: it, people are driven to ask the cause to which this can be attributed. "No intelligent person who has studied the subject can have, failed," says Mr. Simpson, "to notice the. marked growth since' 1898. of a strong'.sentiment of compassion for the criminal. Mitigations of, prison discipline, tho Probation. of Offenders Act, and the establishment .of the Borstal system for young delinquents arc among the, amendments of our penal system which have been the outcome of this sentiment. These, it may with considerable • confidence •be hoped', will ■ in the long run , help to diminish tho total .amount of crime. Jt is very much to the public interest that an. offender against the law.sli6ukr.be enabled to'retain his self-respect during; the term of. imprisonment that his.'offence may bring upon him,- and should bo encouraged at the end of it to do his best to retrieve his character. ~. !But public' sentiment, or at any rate the sentiment that finds public expression, has gone, far beyond this In ,? ht -. I . n . a ß a . zl nes and newspapers that are ordinarily regarded as reflecting public opinion, articles on qrirae and punishment are .commoner, than they ever were ; and .the - sentiment ■'■ that is expressed towards, tho criminal is almpgt universally compassionate and often Sympathetic to ail extent that no previous generation has shown From some, of the expressions uscd.it might almost seem! that tho reading public is on. the side of the criminal as, - against the law, and is ready to ■ accept . without corrobpration anything he may. say -to impugn the - administration of justice lales that would' be,unhesitatingly rejected it they were told by-a'beggar in the street appear/ when urged from the dock as ;an excuse: for thef,t,'to be received wit.h much readier credulity. One illustration may, be giyenT:::in tho summer ot this year a. man of twenty-eight was charged .with. ..trespassing on railway premises. He pleaded that he was "ath--ering flowers to -lay-wi his father's grave. As his father had been dead , some five or six years and he was found in tho company of two known poachers and a lurcher dog,, he could scarcely have expected Ins excuse to be 1 taken' seriously by tho Bench, who in fact imposed.; a penalty of (js. od., to include the costs, 'or in default to go to prison for seven days in the second division: a-fortnight was allowed him in which to pay the fine. Tho •story was, Mr. Simpson declares, repeated with "various embellishments and perversions,of.,fact.'.in tho 'pi-ess"of this country," and --finally appeared in an American newspaper -in an article from which the following is' ah extract:—"Because- the T magistrates imposed a prison sentence upon an eleven-year-old boy, whose offence was venturing- upon tho South-hastern Railroad right of way bore, to. pluck flowers for his father's grave, the entire Bench will have to do somo explaining to the ■Secretary of State for Homo Affairs." Perversion of 1 Truth. Such glaring perversions of the truth would, in the opinion of Mr. Simpson scarcely bo given wide currency in the press if it wero not supposed that the nrst impulse .of a considerable proportion of. tho. public, is. to: side, with the lawbreaker in his conflict .against ,the law and to bohevo in his allegations of tho harshness with which.the law is enforc ed against him, however, improbable they may be. Ihereis," it is added, "a good deal of evidenco that such a predisposition is actually becoming commoner than it was. ... A community that no longer resented crime and had learned to feel nothing but compassion for the criminal would in time inevitably.find itself faced by a flood of criminality against which police and prison authorities would struggle in vain. And though we are far nt present.from any such catastrophe,-it is permissible to suggest that the steady increase of crime during the last ten years is largely duo to a general relaxation in public sentiment with regard to it. Them is. at all events ground for fearing that reprobation of crime and resentment with' regard to. it. There is. at all events ground for fqaring.that reprobation of crime and resentment against tho crim-. inal are,at present factors of diminishing strength in the primary function of civilisatioa—the pafeiuardinc of persons and

properly nn,l tho enforcement of tho law; am thiifc tho increase in Ihe number of indlclablo nffoneos as. shown in tho Judicial Statistics for the la.-t ten years is not a more passing phenomenon such as has ofien been noticed in (h c statistics for previous years, but tho symptom of a real unci increasing plunger t,, tlio public welfare. • . . Clinic is somelinlcs .-poken of as if,it were the outcome of :t revolt of llio poor against the rich; mid the fed ins of dissatisfaction with the inoiiiinlilies of our existing social system at the present time is so deep and so general that anyone professing to take pail in such a revolt may count on securing a good deal of public sympathy. The- press does much to encourage this view of crime. . . . Fiction, too, plays ils part by beguiling the lieges with, fantastic pictures of a Raffles' or an Arseno Lupin, and the modern criminal is too often vested with some, of the romance that with more reason belonged to llw highwayman of old. To one who looks below the. surface tilings appear quite, otherwise. He sees tho average thief as a man who is not very different from tho rest of tho world except perhaps in hnving rather less moral principlo than others, and none, of that terror of prison which marks tho criminal of fiction, and who follows an anti-social mode of life not altogether from innate perversity, but in tho belief that, as things are at present, crime offers on the whole an easier means ,of living than any other that is open to him. Poverty is no doubt an extenuation of dishonesty, but it cannot be regarded as a sufficient'excuse for it, unless wo disregard tho many thousands who contrive to remain honest in circumstances of extreme penury. . . .

In the 1705 cases of larceny from tho person, and tho 47,363 'minor larcenies' which came into 'Court during 1909, the victims who suffered most wcru ill-paid clerks or working men and women. . . . In fact, the propertied classes can fairly well protect themselves against all but the more enterprising criminals, and at all events suffer far less than the poor do;, if the comparative defencelessness of the latter against the professional thieves and swindlers were more fully realised ljy the public, it is possible that there would be less sympathy with the convicted criminal, and 'consequently less crime to record in these, statistics." .