The Most Murderous Country.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 21, 22 May 1912, Page 34

The Most Murderous Country.

If you were asked to name the most murderous country on earth, your thoughts would probably wander in the direction of Turkey or China or the Congo or some other outlandish spot. But you would be wrong. The country in which the most murders are committed, and with the greatest freedom from punishment, is the civilised country which calls itself America. Last year there were no fewer than 8,975 deaths from murder: and you can get some idea of what these figures mean if you reflect that every time the clock strikes, from the first to the last day of the year, someone is murdered in America. An English weekly analyses these figures- the total has already been given in these columns rather ingeniously. Suppose you read in the paper one day, says the writer, that in Chicago or New York a gang of dynamitards had slaughtered a hundred innocent persons, you would doubtless be horrified: and yet so colossal' is the total of murders that such an outrage would not make any perceptible difference in the average. A closer examination of the figures is still more striking than the total. Out of nearly 9.000 murders only 1,000 were committed by what we may call professional

criminals, that is. highwaymen and footpads. '1 he rest was the work of amateurs. or those who are not habitually criminals. But the most amazing point about American crime statistics is not so much the number of murders as th? number of murderers who escape punishment. In one year there were 10,700 convicts in prison, serving various sentences for the crime of murder. Some of thehi were known to have been in prison for some time. That is to say, the 10,700 convictions were spread over a number of years. Expert analysis puts the average sentence at about ten years. This means, roughly, that not one murderer in ten in the United States is ever imprisoned. To sum up the situation we obtain the following astounding odds: Tn the first place, it is three..to one that the murderer will never be brought to trial. Next, it is ten to one that the murderer who is brought to trial will never be sentenced to prison. Thirdly, it is eighty to one that the murderer will never be executed.