The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-07-01 00:00:00

CRIMINAL OFFENDERS-ENGLAND & WALES.

Memoranda of, some qt. the principal Results shown by
[ll the Tables for the Year 1835.
There has been a total decrease in the numbers charged
in 1835, as compared with the precedingyear, of 1,720
persons, or nearly 8 per cent. In 30 English counties
there was a decrease. This decrease was most marked
in the following counties:—ln Northamptonshire it was
nearly one-half; in Herefordshire, above one-third ; in
Berkshire, Cheshire, Hampshire, and Worcestershire,
one-fourth; and in Durham and Shropshire, one-fifth.
In Middlesex the decrease was 17 per cent. ; in Surrey,
little more than 4 per cent. ; in Yorkshire 14 per cent.;
and inLancashire, 44_, per cent-
In Wales, the total decrease on the 12 counties was 27
per cent.
In the remaining 11 English counties, and in Bristol,
there was an increase, which was proportionally greatest;
in Gloucestershire, where it amounted to 19 per cent.;
in Kent, to 15 per cent. ; in Warwickshire, to 14 per
cent. ; and in Staffordshire, to 10 per cent. In Essex,
the increase was above 8 per cent.
• The decrease does not appear to be confined:to any one
• class of offences, but to be spread pretty equally over the
whole—being, however, rather the greatest on the more
hideous•effences. Thus the offence against the person
bore the proportion to the whole,' in 1834, of 10 25 per
cent., and in 1835 of 9-72 per cent..only_; and the violent
offences against property, in 1834, of 6-53 per cent.; and
-in 1835 of 6-50 per cent. Making the comparison with
the average of the preceding five years, there 'is an in-
crease in the,offences against the person, (exclusive of
assaults, and assaults on peaee-Offfcers, which were not
then admitted into the calculations,) of 7 per cent. But
in the violent offences against property, a -decrease is
shown of above -11-25 per cent., and in the malicibuS
offences against property of 137 per cent.
Resuming the comparison with the year. 1834, the de-
crease which took place skews the following results on the
numbers sentenced:—lncluding the commutations, there -
is a decrease in the numbers transported of 414, and in
the numbers imprisoned' of 782. In the capital convic-
tions, there is an increase of 43 persons, which arose
chiefly in the numbers charged with robbery and burglary;
though the increase in the latter offence may be probably
attributed more to the recent alteration in the law of
housebreaking than to an increase in the number of bur,
glarieS. The numbers, executed are the same in both
years-34. The decrease has not only been proportional
on the juvenile offenders, but greater in that than in the
other classes. The proportion of offenders aged 12 years
and under was, in 1834, 1-78 per cent., and in;1835, 1-67
per cent. only ; of offender's aged 16 and above 12, in
. 1834, 9-82 per cent., but in 1835, 9-70 per cent.:
From the new table, showing the courts before which
the prisoners were tried, it appears that 2,849 were tried'
before the new central criminal court, 3,408 before the
circuit assize courts,, 10,737 (above: .half ) before the
county quarter sessions courts, and 3,737 before local
courts. As the different offences tried before each of
these courts are described in the tables, it will be seen
how greatly the recent abolition of the capital punish
ments in many cases has tended to increase the jurisdic-
tion of the sessions. Last year these courts tried 132
prisoners for housebreaking, 14 for cattle-stealing, 62 for
horse-stealing, 108 for shecp-stealing, and 41 for larceny
to the value of £5 in dwelling-ho Uses; all of which
offences, while the capital punishment existed, were tried
at the assizes. The acts for the consolidation of the cri-
minal law, passed in 1827, also greatly increased the se-
verity of the sentences, which it was in the power of the
sessions to pass, and transportation for life, theretofore'
not a common sessions punishment, is now of constant
recurrence.
Borne-office, Whitehall, May, 1836.