The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-09 00:00:00

JUVENILE OFFENDERS.

At a meeting of noblemen and gentlemen, held at the
Zlansion house, on the 14th day of February, 1846, the
BHA Hon. the Lord Mayor in the chair, the following
:Suggestions were submitted to their consideration by
the City Solicitor, as a Plan for Checking the Growth of
Juvenile Crime, and providing for the mental, moral,
religious, and industrial training of destitute Youth in
the Metropolis and other large Cities and Towns.
1. It appears, from Parliamentary returns and other
authentic documents, that during the present century
the number of commitments and convictions for crime
has increased in this country greatly beyond the in-
creme of population. Thus, hi the five years preceding
1810 the average annual number of commitments in
England and %Vales was 4,792, and the convictions 2,840,
*bile the p,pulation of the age of teu years and up-
wards amounted to 7,302,600 ; whereas in the five
ears preceding 1845 the average annual number of
commitments was 28,477, and the convictions 20,590,
Mod the population ten years old and upwards had in.
treas.Kl to 12.093,000 ; so that in a period of forty
ears population ten years old and upwards has increased
65 per cent., while the proportionate commitments for
le rime have been augmented 494 per cent., and the con-
'Actions 625 per cent.
2. Until within the last ten years the returns do not
trecify the ages of the prisoners ; but, as appears by
these later documents, the number of juvenile criminals
annually convicted in England and Wales, has increased
in a greater degree than even the mass of criminals at
largo, Thus the number of oritnipals, under twenty

years of age, committed to prison in the year 1835 was
6,803, or one in 449 of the population, between ten and
twenty years of age ; while in 1844 they amounted to
11,348, or 1 in 304 upon the population of the same
age.
3. While it ig universally admitted that poverty and
ignorance have a natural tendency to augment the
growth of crime, it must also be admitted that the stated
increase cannot be attributed to these causes alone ; for
we find that the average of commitments in each quin-
quennial period shows an augmentation of the preceding
average, irrespective of the fluctuations which during
those periods have taken place in the national prosperity,
and in an inverse direction to the accumulation of na-
tional wealth, which during the whole time has been un-
doubtedly taking place. That this increase of crime
cannot be attributed to the absence or education, is like-
wise equally apparent ; for during the whole of the in-
tervening period most strenuous exertions have been
made to alien' to the masses of the people increased
education, intellectual, moral, and religious, and to sup-
ply them with the means of satisfying the appetite for
knowledge, which elementary instruction was calculated
to inspire.
4. If tfie force of mere education could counteract
the causes which are at work in promoting the increase
of crime, the annual increase of education would be
found to tell with greater effect upon the younger classes
o f the population, who are most within the range of its
influence. We
in however find that in spite of the diffu-
sion of education the number of juvenile criminals in-
creases a larger proportion than the number of cri-
minal adults.

5. As to the effect of prosperity or adversity upon the
growth of crime it is likewise worthy of remark, that,
although the last three years sh ) v a decrease i tile
number of commitments and convictions in respect of the
whole population of England and Wales (which the
Premier and the Secretary of State have in Parliament
truly ascribed to the increased prosperity and industrial
occupation of the masses of the people), yet the stated
decrease during those years is in respect of the adult
population only ; as upon comparison of the two periods
the number of commitments and convictions of juvenile
offenders has increased in the three latter years upwards
of seven per cent.
6. From the foregoing facts it is quite manifest that
we must seek for the causes of crime's increase in some
other circumstances than the mere ignorance and po-
verty of the masses of the people.
7. In considering this subject it is gratifying to re-
mark, that, although crimes have increased in number,
they have been of a less aggravated character and de-
gree. It is also to be observed, that the number of com-
mitments, or even the number of convictions, at the two
periods taken for the purpose of comparison, do not
furnish a true index of the actual increase of crime in
the kingdom during the intervening years. Various
circumstances have interposed to disturb this compari-
son—the transition from war to peace threw upon the
country a portion of loose population, from which
it had been relieved in time of war—the substitution of
the new police, and the rival constabulary for the Dug-
berries of ancient times, has doubtless caused the detec-
tion and apprehension of many criminals who would
otherwise have escaped. The payment of prosecutors'
expenses out of the county rates stimulates prosecutions
that might not have been instituted. The almost total
abolition of the punishment of death, the diminution of
transportations, and the substitution of shorter terms of
imprisonment, have all of them had some effsct in aug-
menting the number of commitments and convictions
beyond the actual increase of crime ; but a close exami-
nation of the numbers in the years when these altera-
tions tcok place, and their comparison with preceding
and succeeding years, will prove that the influence of
these causes (except the return of peace) is much less
than might have been imagined ; so much so that the
quinquennial averages during the whole forty years show
a graduated Increase ; it should likewise be noted, that
the effect of these changes upon the returns of the num-
ber of commitments has been much qualified by the
modern system of legislation, which so frequent substi-
tutes summary convictions for trial by jury, and has
transferred to the jurisdiction of the magistrates, many
cases that would otherwise have appeared as commit-
ments and convictions in the later criminal returns. In
point of fact it is believed that the number of summary
convictions for petty offences in England and Wales,
which do not find a place in the returns of commitments
and convictions from which the foregoing calculations
have been made, amount to more than three times the
number of convictions at the assizes and sessions, which
form the basis of these returns.
8. Coeval with this extraordinary increase of commit-
ments and convictions for crime, has been the multipli-
cation of petty offences, punishable by fine, and (failing
its payment) by short imprisonment in gaol.* All
these offences (many of them mere male prohibit() it is
within the range of mischievous youth to commit, and
having no money for the penalty, they of course pay in
person, as they cannot pay in purse.
9. Upon summary convictions, short imprisonments
are awarded for the smallest offence, and it is no un-
common thing to read in the newspapers of young
urchins found, in a state of destitution, or in the com-
mission of some petty delinquency, commisserated by
the magistrate, who expresses his pity for their un-
fortunate condition, and laments that he has no other
place than a criminal's gaol, to which he may consign
them.
10. The mind of the child thus becomes familiarised
with a gaol—a prison is at once disarmed of its terrors
and its shame. In a gaol the novice in crime gets ac•
quainted with the hardened in guilt • he finds himself
the object of commiseration ; he finds that he is better
clothed, better fed, better housed and better cared for,
within its walls than in the habitation of his parents or
the workhouse of his parish; hence petty delinquencies
become the prelude to the gravest crimes, and the child
acclimated to the atmosphere of a gaol grows up- to
manhood, disabled from gaining an honest living, by
having had the brand of crime stamped upon his fore-
head, and he so remains, perhaps for years, a continual
burden to the State, until his education is finished in
the Model Prison, at an expense of some thirty or forty
pounds, preparatory to his transportation from his native
land at a further cost of the like sum.
11. If, when this child was first charged with vio-
lating the law, or was first found in destitution on the
threshold of crime, it had been placed in a reformatory
establishment, surrounded with means and appliances
for mental, moral, religious, and industrial training,—
instead of costing his country, iu loss by plunder and in
expenses of prosecutions, imprisonments, and trans-
portation, from 1001. to 1301.—be would, for one third
of that price, have been rendered a useful and valuable
member of society, either at home or in any one of our
Colonies—to which, as a free emigrant, after proper
training, he might be willing to be transferred.
12. To carry out this object in a cheap and efficient
manner, it should not be undertaken by a mere union of
parishes, or even of counties ; it must be by the estab-
lishment of Kational Asylums, in which all objects, of
both sexes, however numerous, may be received, and
where they may be classified according to their sex,
age, and strength, as well as their past pursuits and asso-
ciations ; and where they may, from time to time, be
re-arranged according to their conduct, character, and
attainments, and according to their intended vocation in
after life.
13. These establishments should be conducted by
government offs-ers, under the supervision of Inspectors
and Boards of Magistrates ; they should be placed on
the line of the great trunk railroads, by which children
could be transmitted safely, cheaply, and expeditiously
to and from different parts of the kingdom, and by
which the produce of their labour, such as market-
garden stuff, and ether productions of the soil, might be
easily'forwarded to the metropolis or other large towns,
where a ready consumption would be foundet Out-door
labour should be united with mental and religious edu-
cation, and with instruction in mechanical employment :
employment in the open air invigorates the frame, pro-
motes their growth, and is a good preparation for any
situation that youth may be destined hereafter to fill.
The length of their continuance in the Asylum should
not be determined by a sentence of years or months, but
by a modified application of Captain Macenochie's sys-
tem, where good conduct, industrious habits, and profi-
ciency in some industrial pursuit, will distinguish the
inmates, as fit for apprenticeship in this ceuntry, or the
colonies, or to enter as volunteers in the naval or mili-
tary service, as may best suit their taste awl inclination.
- 14. The cost of these establishments would be very
inconsiderable, when compared with the enormous sums
which in one form or another these wasters, these de-
stroyers of property, now entail upon some portions of
the community. Children taken into the Asylum before
they are confirmed in evil habits, or hardened in crimi-
nal pursuits, may be easily eontroled, trained, and in-
structed, and may, to a considerable extent, be made
prodective, if stimulated by a prospect of reward. to
engage in useful and profitable labour suitable to their
age, strength, and disposition. The expense of Park-
hurst Convict Asylunat affords no means of comparison
as to the cost of such an establishment as is here pro-
posed, or as to its influence upon the character of the
inmates or its effects upon the interests of society at
large. Upon the excellent managers of Parkhurst
devolves the difficult and all but hopeless task of con-
trouling and correcting the inmates, who, although
young in years arc old in crime, and who, bearing about
them the brand of convicted felons, are insensible to
those incentives to industry and good conduct which,
with an untainted character, the prospect of future
sacce3s in a useful and honourable calling, could scarcely
fail to inspire in the youth of the proposed Asylum.
al isls here. The cost of prisoners in the gaols of this kingdom
affords no criterion of the expense of such an institution
productiv Proapnodsethle
expensive than the ddieitetoifs
large The staff of the gaols is necessarily
60 and expensive—the labour is nearly, or quite, un-
r and more
kingdom. This is saidratauch3:e.
notori.ously higher he
cost of subsistence of the Uniou house, or than. the
of the free labourers in the
necessary to maintain at its
proper standaTd, in the° sccotianement of a prison,
the strength of an individual accustomed to the stimulat-
ing food in which the criminal cla33e9 are
wont to indulge,

* See 4 Cleo. IV. c. 114 ; 5 GOD. IV.T}I7"---
IV. e. 30; 5 and 6 Vim. IV. c. 59 ; 2 7 and 8 Geo.
" Viet: C. 47 ; 2
and 3 Viet. c. 94 ; 2 and 3 Vict. 71 ; 6 and
C. 7 Vtet. c. 86 ;
and many other Acts.
f This is a matter of detail, which it had been, perhaps,
.
better to have omitted from the paper mar et-gar-
dening is here referred to merely because that mode of em-
ploying land atibres more light labour, during a greater
period of the year, than any other. In the vicinity of
London, active occupation for women and lads is found
during nine months of the year, in diggihe lng, trenof mching, dres-
sing, cropping, hoeing, and weeding tand ark
gardens—of some descriptions of produce three or four crops
in a year are obtained, and a market could be found in Lon-
don or other large towns for an unlimited supply of produce,
without materially interfering with other interests—it is an
object of importance, in all establishments of this descrip-
tion, to finl a profitable occupation for the inmates, with as
little interference as possible with the free labour market.
The annual expense of Parkhurst Establishment for
310-hifooauntnn convicts amounts to 251. 6s. Ild. each inmate : more
aangagricultural
inc sufficientuolrteutortalhpanr olvatbihdoeeuwtr:aregsmehswaovinet htowahsbiucophaportdtri boarding-school
greaterhh ()ol
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