Crime and Its Causes | Page 3

an
experience of fourteen years in Orders most of which have been spent
in prison work. In revising the proofs I have received valuable
assistance from Mr. J. Morrison.

W.D.M.

CRIME AND ITS CAUSES

CHAPTER I
.
THE STATISTICS OF CRIME.
It is only within the present century, and in some countries it is only
within the present generation, that the possibility has arisen of
conducting the study of criminal problems on anything approaching an
exact and scientific basis. Before the introduction of a system of
criminal statistics--a step taken by most peoples within the memory of
men still living--it was impossible for civilised communities to
ascertain with absolute accuracy whether crime was increasing or
decreasing, or what transformation it was passing through in
consequence of the social, political, and economic changes constantly
taking place in all highly organised societies. It was also equally
impossible to appreciate the effect of punishment for good or evil on
the criminal population. Justice had little or no data to go upon;
prisoners were sentenced in batches to the gallows, to transportation, to
the hulks, or to the county gaol, but no inquiry was made as to the
result of these punishments on the criminal classes or on the progress of
crime. It was deemed sufficient to catch and punish the offender; the
more offences seemed to increase--there was no sure method of
knowing whether they did increase or not--the more severe the
punishment became. Justice worked in the dark, and was surrounded by
the terrors of darkness. What followed is easy to imagine; the criminal
law of England reached a pitch of unparalleled barbarity, and within
living memory laws were on the statute book by which a man might be
hanged for stealing property above the value of a shilling.
Had a fairly accurate system of criminal statistics existed, it is very
likely that the data contained in them would have reassured the nation
and tempered the severity of the law.
Of Criminal Statistics it may be said in the first place, that they act as
an annual register for tabulating the amount of danger to which society
is exposed by the nefarious operations of lawless persons. By these

statistics we are informed of the number of crimes committed during
the course of the year so far as they are reported to the police. We are
informed of the number of persons brought to trial for the perpetration
of these crimes; of the nature of the offences with which incriminated
persons are charged, and of the length of sentence imposed on those
who are sent to prison. The age, the degree of instruction, and the
occupations of prisoners are also tabulated. A record is also kept of the
number of times a man has been committed to prison, and of the
manner in which he has conducted himself while in confinement.
One important point must be mentioned on which criminal statistics are
almost entirely silent. The great sources of crime are the personal, the
social, and the economic conditions of the individuals who commit it.
Criminal statistics, to be exhaustive, ought to include not only the
amount of crime and the degrees of punishment awarded to offenders;
these statistics should also, as far as practicable, take cognisance of the
sources from which crime undoubtedly springs. In this respect, our
information, so far as it comes to us through ordinary channels, is
lamentably deficient. It is confined to data respecting the age, sex, and
occupation of the offender. These data are very interesting, and very
useful, as affording a glimpse of the sources from which the dark river
of delinquency takes its rise. But they are too meagre and fragmentary.
They require to be completed by the personal and social history of the
criminal. Crime is not necessarily a disease, but it resembles disease in
this respect, that it will be impossible to wipe it out till an accurate
diagnosis has been made of the causes which produce it. To punish
crime is all very well; but punishment is not an absolute remedy; its
deterrent action is limited, and other methods besides punishment must
be adopted if society wishes to gain the mastery over the criminal
population. What those methods should be can only be ascertained after
the most searching preliminary inquiries into the main factors of crime.
It ought, therefore, to be a weighty part of the business of criminal
statistics to offer as full information as possible, not only respecting
crimes and punishments, but much more respecting criminals. Every
criminal has a life history; that history is very frequently the
explanation of his sinister career; it ought, therefore, to be tabulated, so
that it may be seen how far his descent and his surroundings have
contributed to make him what he is.