A DECREASE IN CRIME

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1914, Page 5

A DECREASE IN CRIME

j To those who scan the English j newspapers, and cast their eyes over i those columns devoted to "Law ana Police" intelligence, it scarcely seems possible to believe that the inhabitants of the Old Country are really I growing more law-abiding; indeed, i one would probably, on mere observation of the kind indicated, have conj« to the conclusion that in many directions indictable offences against the law of the land were on the increase. But according to the report of the Committee of the Howard Association, which makes a special study of crime; and has access to all the criminal statistics available, all the indications, to be found in such figures point to -vifc most satisfactory diminu- ; tion in the volume of crime. During . 1913 the number of convicted prisonj era in England and Wales went down i nearly 10,000—Scotland, it seems, less fortunate—and this decrease is j all the more striking since the figures of the previous year were the lowest on record, with the exception of those of 1900-1. This evidence, ; .which seems to point to a growing re- ; epect for law and order among the ; people of the United Kingdom, is > strengthened by statistics supplied by" j the Prison Commissioners. In their • report Ih-ey," state that the number of ■ persons ttried in the. Courts of summary jurisdiction has decreased during the last ten years by 100,000./ Other figures showing the proportion .of criminals to every 100,000 of the { population also support the c'onclu- { sum that the sense of, honesty among j the mass of the community is steadily1 I increasing.