The morning call., 1893-05-05
EDUCATION AND CRIME.

A bulletin lately issued by the United
States Commissioner of Education states
that in nineteen States from which correct
statistics have been obtained the proportion
of lliterate persons confined in Jails TO
prisoners who can read and write Is as 6 to
l. This retutes the popular impression that
education is of no value as a means of re-
pressing crime. 1t shows that as the edu-
Gated far outnumber the lliterate the Hit
crate are more than six times as likely as
the educated 10 yield TO the impulse which
lead 10 violations of law. Learning is not
by any means an absolute guarantee OF
morality. Some learned men have been
great rascalS and one large class of offenses
the only class which appears to be in
creasing-the class which embraces the
various forms of fraud. is necessarily COM
mitted by persons of intelligence and edu-
cation. EmbeHlement, grand larceny and
breaches Of trust are the work of men who
have been schooled. But on the other
hand. crimes of violence. murder, highway
robbery, the graver forms of assault,
mayhem. attacks on women, are far more
likely to be committed by the illiterate than
by those who have been readers. Books
that is to osay-instructive books, incucate
the duty of self-eontrol, and teach that the
indulgence of passion never pays. Those.
therefore, who read books are more likely
to keep riotous impulses in check than those
who never learned that lesson from the
records of the pen.
Are we therefore TO infer that in the
future, when every one will be a0e to read
and write. and books will be within the
reach of the poorest, crimes Of violence will
disappear ana the criminal courts will be
kept busy with cases of fraud exclusively?
| 1t is not easy TO answer that question. Can
| the hOmicidal instinct be wholly eradicated
from the human heart? To respond intel-
| ligently to that query it would b. necessary
to have some statistical record of murders in
| past times, and we have none. To-day no
murder escapes notice. The murderer often
| eludes detection, and remains unknown.
| But his crime is almost always patent
| fact. In the days of our forefathers on the
| contrary. a great many murders escaped
| discovery altogether. Men disappeared. but
| whether they had been done to d"ath or had
| gone junketing into strange countries no
one knew, and for that matter few cared.
| Ii we could feel sure that the number of
murders which were committed 100 years
ago was twice as great--in proportion to
| population-as IL is now, we might risk the
| positive statement that education checks
! the homicidal mania. AS it is we can only
put the proposition in Hypothetical form.
There is some reason to fear that one form
| of murder has been promoted by the spread
of edueaticn-that is murder by poison.
Increased knowledge of chemistry has
brought to light number OF new substances
which win destroy life, and some of which
will almost defy detection in the organs after
death. II is very much easier than it used
to be for a husband to poison his wife, or a
son his father, in a way which will made
| discovery difficult.
The tendency of education is to strengthen
| public co fidence in the opinion that pun
shment follows crime, and in that res pect
| it tends to diminish crime. Where the
chances are about even between punish
ment and impunity, the man of criminal
impulses will take the risk, If the object he
is after makes it worth while. but il study
! Of the criminal chronicle teaches that the
proportion of crimes which escape puDi ish-
ment is small he Will hesitate. Brigandism
and murder were rife in Southern Italy un-
der Ferdinand, whose courts convicted uo
one but political prisoners; but when Murat
had every brigand shot the gentlemen Of
| the highway went out of business.