The record-union., 1891-06-27
PREVENTION OF CRIME IN YOUTH.

PREVENTION OF CRIME IN YOUTH.
At the National Charity Conference
held recently at indianapolis. Mr.. A. c.
Wright, conspicuous worker in the pre-
vention of crime, submitted an able
paper in which he contended that COM
pulsory education is the best preventive
of the enlargement of the criminal classes.
In support of this view he adduced sta
tistical proofs that certainly seemed to
sustain him. But statistics 1t is said may
be made to prove almost anything, and
1t is not to be taken out Of hand as true
that because in one place there is much
crime and little education, that the crime
is the inevitable result of ignorance.
Generally that is a sound conclusion. but
not invariably. But when it is shown,
as was done by Mr.. Wright, that the
criminal class mainly increases in youth
fulness, he proves that there are youths
engaged in criminal practices who ought
to be under educational and industrial
influences, for it is established in nearly
all cases that youthful criminals are de-
void Of even the commonest knowledge
impaired in the free schools.
Mr.. Vaux recently presented some
very interesting facts cleaned from in
vestIgations in the Eastern Pennsylvania
Penitentiary, he being the President of
the Board of Inspectors of that institu-
ton. His proofs established the fact that
most youthful criminals are made at the
very age when children should be in at
tendance upon school, or when they
should be learning trades. Indeed, Mr..
Naux's figures prove still more-that the
majority of modern criminals began in
early youth their career Of lawlessness,
and that they are, in the main, those who
neglected school privileges. Mr.. Wright
quoted Mr.. Vaux's statements in support
Of his claim for compulsory education, or
at least compulsory industry 1t is a
truth that environment has most to do
with the determination of the individual
and permanent social condition If we
can, as is proposed in London for in
stance, bring light, air and cleanliness
into the disreputable and squaIed quar-
ters, we antagoniZe all, or nearly all, the
influences that tend to conduct youth into
crime. If the surroundings are those of
cleanliness, order, industry and intelli-
gence, we expect then good citizenship.
From the homes of idleness, intemper-
ance, ignorance and squalor we look for
the output of a vicious class. Mr..
Wright's idea is that the State begins at
the wrong end of the problem when it
waits until the child has developed Grim
inal tastes, and then seizes him and con-
fines or restraints him in reformatory.
de has nothing TO say against such insti-
tutions, but insists, and we think with
irresistible force, that the State has a right
to prevent crime as much as to punish for
its commission. He would therefore
have the State take the neglected children
into the schools, or into industry, that
they may at least be taught to think, and
understand the value of knowledge.
But he does not go far enough to make
his argument effective. If the child is in
the surroundings of vice, filth, intemper-
ance and viciousness, school education is
not enough to rescue him from his en-
vironment. If it is more economic to
battle with the environment than to sup
ply jails and reformatories to care for the
products of vicious conditions, the
remedy is in part suggested. For, as Mr..
Wright holds, education will not of ne
cessity prevent the youth from drifting
into criminal ways, but it does have a
tendency to check the increase of the
criminal class. Education combined
with war upon squalor and filth, and
against the vicious environment. will
come very near TO absolute prevention of
crime ; it will at least operate to greatly
limit the enlargement of the criminal
class. The effort now on foot in London.
therefore, to better the surroundings of
the low quarters, and TO let in light and
air, and enforce cleanliness in the pauper
districts, is in the right direction; even
more than is compulsory education it is
preventive Of vagrancy and crime. Com
bine this activity with enforced industry
and education, and the nearest possible
approach to the prevention of the growth
of the criminal classes is made.
The question that is most important,
however, is that relating to the Feasibility
of such efforts. Ii seems to be taken for
granted in London that it is practical
scheme, and that in all great cities, which
are the chief hives of wretchedness and
crime, the work suggested by the Booth
following in London is feasible, and that
war upon pauperism is the direct assault
upon the breeding-spots of crime. The