Crime and Its Causes | Page 5

the individual in this respect depends to a
large extent on the customs of the country. In some countries the
injured person, instead of putting the law in motion against an offender,
takes the matter in his own hands, and administers the wild justice of
revenge. Great differences of opinion also exist among different nations

as to the gravity of certain offences. Among some peoples there is a far
greater reluctance than there is among others to appeal to the law.
Murder is perhaps the only crime on which there exists a fair consensus
of opinion among civilised communities; and even with regard to this
offence it is impossible to overcome all the judicial and statistical
difficulties which stand in the way of an international comparison.
In spite, however, of the fact that the amount of crime committed in
civilised countries cannot be subjected to exact comparison, there are
various points on which the international statistics of crime are able to
render valuable service. It is important, for instance, to see in what
relation crime in different communities stands to age, sex, climate,
temperature, race, education, religion, occupation, home and social
surroundings. If we find, for example, an abnormal development of
crime taking place in a given country at a certain period of life, or in
certain social circumstances, and if we do not discover the same
abnormal development taking place in other countries at a similar
period of life, or in a similar social stratum, we ought at once to come
to the conclusion that there is some extraordinary cause at work
peculiar to the country which is producing an unusually high total of
crime. If, on the other hand, we find that certain kinds of crime are
increasing or decreasing in all countries at the same time, we may be
perfectly sure that the increase or decrease is brought about by the same
set of causes. And whether those causes are war, political movements,
commercial prosperity, or depression, the community which first
escapes from them will also be the first to show it in the annual
statistics of crime. In these and many other ways international statistics
are of the greatest utility.
From what has already been said as to the immense difficulty of
comparing the criminal statistics of various countries, it follows as a
matter of course that the figures contained in them cannot be used as a
means of ascertaining the position which belongs to each nation
respectively in the scale of morality. Nor is the moral progress of a
nation to be measured solely by an apparent decay of crime. On the
contrary, an increase in the amount of crime may be the direct result of
a moral advance in the average sentiments of the community. The
passing of the Elementary Education Act of 1870 and of the Criminal
Law Amendment Act of 1885 have added considerably to the number

of persons brought before the criminal courts and eventually committed
to prison. But an increase of the prison population due to these causes
is no proof that the country is deteriorating morally. It will be regarded
by many persons as a proof that the country has improved, for it is now
demanding a higher standard of conduct from the ordinary citizen than
it demanded twenty years ago.[3]
[3] Before the passing of the Elementary Education Act, no one was
tried for not sending his child to school; it was not a legal offence; in
1888-9 no less than 80,519 persons were tried under this Act, in
England and Wales.
On the other hand, a decrease in the official statistics of crime may be a
proof that the moral sentiments of a nation are degenerating. It may be
a proof that the laws are ceasing to be an effective protection to the
citizen, and that society is falling a victim to the forces of anarchy and
crime. It is, therefore, impossible by looking only at the bare figures
contained in criminal statistics, to say whether a community is growing
better or worse. Before any conclusions can be formed on these matters,
either one way or the other, we must go behind the figures, and look at
them in the light of the social, political and industrial developments
taking place in the society to which these figures refer.
In this connection, it may not be amiss to point out that the present
tendency of legislation is bound to produce more crime. All law is by
its nature coercive, but so long as the coercion is confined within a
limited area, or can only come into operation at rare intervals, it
produces comparatively little effect on the whole volume of crime.
When, however, a law is passed affecting every member of the
community every day of his life, such a