Crime and Its Causes | Page 6

law is certain to increase the
population of our gaols. A marked characteristic of the present time is
that legislative assemblies are becoming more and more inclined to
pass such laws; so long as this is the case it is vain to hope for a
decrease in the annual amount of crime. Whether these new coercive
laws are beneficial or the reverse is a matter which it does not at this
moment concern me to discuss; what I am anxious to point out is, that
the more they are multiplied, the greater will be the number of persons
annually committed to prison. In initiating legislation of a far-reaching
coercive character, politicians should remember far more than they do
at present that the effect of these Acts of Parliament will be to fill the

gaols, and to put the prison taint upon a greater number of the
population. This is a responsibility which no body of men ought lightly
to incur, and in considering the advantages to be derived from some
new legislative enactment, an equal amount of consideration should be
bestowed upon the fact that the new enactment will also be the means
of providing a fresh recruiting ground for the permanent army of crime.
A man, for instance, goes to prison for contravening some municipal
bye-law; he comes out of it the friend and associate of habitual
criminals; and the ultimate result of the bye-law is to transform a
comparatively harmless member of society into a dangerous thief or
house-breaker. One person of this character is a greater menace to
society than a hundred offenders against municipal regulations, and the
present system of law-making undoubtedly helps to multiply this class
of men. One of the leading principles of all wise legislation should be
to keep the population out of gaol; but the direct result of many recent
enactments, both in this country and abroad, is to drive them into it;
and it may be taken as an axiom that the more the functions of
Government are extended, the greater will be the amount of crime.
These remarks lead me to approach the question of what is called "the
movement" of crime. Is its total volume increasing or decreasing in the
principal civilised countries of the world? On this point there is some
diversity of view, but most of the principal authorities in Europe and
America are emphatically of opinion that crime is on the increase. In
the United States, we are told by Mr. D.A. Wells,[4] and by Mr.
Howard Wines, an eminent specialist in criminal matters, that crime is
steadily increasing, and it is increasing faster than the growth of the
population.
[4] _Recent Economic Changes_, p. 345.
Nearly all the chief statisticians abroad tell the same tale with respect to
the growth of crime on the Continent. Dr. Mischler of Vienna, and
Professor von Liszt of Marburg draw a deplorable picture of the
increase of crime in Germany. Professor von Liszt, in a recent article,[5]
says, that fifteen million persons have been convicted by the German
criminal courts within the last ten years; and, according to him, the
outlook for the future is sombre in the last degree. In France, the
criminal problem is just as formidable and perplexing as it is in
Germany; M. Henri Joly estimates that crime has increased in the

former country 133 per cent. within the last half century, and is still
steadily rising. Taking Victoria as a typical Australasian colony, we
find that even in the Antipodes, which are not vexed to the same extent
as Europe with social and economic difficulties, crime is persistently
raising its head, and although it does not increase quite as rapidly as the
population, it is nevertheless a more menacing danger among the
Victorian colonists than it is at home.[6]
[5] _Zeitschrift für die gesamte Strafrechtswissenschaft_ ix. 472, sg.
[6] See _Statistical Register for Victoria_, Part viii.
Is England an exception to the rest of the world with respect to crime?
Many people are of opinion that it is, and the idea is at present
diligently fostered on the platform and in the press that we have at last
found out the secret of dealing successfully with the criminal
population. As far as I can ascertain, this belief is based upon the
statement that the daily average of persons in prison is constantly going
down. Inasmuch, as there was a daily average of over 20,000 persons in
prison in 1878, and a daily average of about 15,000 in 1888, many
people immediately jump at the conclusion that crime is diminishing.
But the daily average is no criterion whatever of the rise and fall of
crime. Calculated on the principle of daily average, twelve men
sentenced to prison for one month each, will not figure so largely in