The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-04-10
CRIME AND STATISTICS.

for April there is an interesting discus
sion by Carroll d. Wright, the statis-
tician. of criminal statistics in the
United States, the conclusion reached
being to the effect that our statistics of
crime are very imperfect and require
nice handling if they are to be made
the basis of an argument. In the old
countries of Europe, where the enforce
ment of law is methodic and uniform
and records are carefully kept, statis-
tics have definite value. "Conditions
are fixed" says the writer, ''politics do
not enter into the enforcem mt oflaw and
civilization is distributed in equal meas
ure over the whole country. whereas
lin the United States the execution of
law is vigorous or lax in accordance
with the moral sentiment of the com
mrnity, thus varying greatly in differ
cnt parts Of the United States, while.
again, politics enter largely into the
whole question: The number of sell
fences for crimes in given State va
ries with the legislation. Laws are
constantly being passed to raise moral
delinquencies to the grade of positive
crimes. and then, after a time, such
laws may he repealed, with the result
comparing one year with another. This
is illustrated by the record Of liquor
legislation in connection with crimes.
Prohibitory legislation seems uniformly
to increase drunkenness. for the reason
in large part, that it increases, if Ell
forced, the number Of convictions. \
new class of statistics is called into eX-
i,tance. 1t is to be noted also that as
a rule, the authorities oflarge cities are
opposed to prohibitorv laws, deemine
licenses more rational or eXpedient
They are accordingly often led to Ell.
force prohibitory laws with extreme
rigor in order to make them odious and
secure their appeal. With license
law they are lenicnt in making arrests
of drunken persons. Thus it comes
about that statistics seem to prove
prohibition extremely prolific in crime.
while licenses promote virtue. In any
case, errors enter the record hy reason
of want Of uniformity in methods in
various parts offs given State. This
want of uniformity at Il particular date
is exceeded hy the variations between
different dates. In recent years sta
tistics are better kept than formerly
with the effect of appearing to show an
increase of crime.
The difficulty of making instructive
comparisons is enhanced when an at,
tempt is made to deal with the statistics
Of different States or of the whole
United States. Mr.. Wright mentions
the result of an examination made 10y
him a few years ago of the criminal
statistics of two States, which he desig-
mates in his article as No. | and No. 3
In No. the criminal code provided
for the punishment of 1873 ottenses as
crimes. In No. : the code for the
same year provided for the punishment
of but los offenses as crimes. There
was further difference. In No. = 3
number of grave offenses were punish
able by Imprisonment. Some "a pei
celt. of the commitments in State No
| were for crimes which in State No
would have been punished by fine on
ly. The statistics of crime, in mass, III
the two States had, it is evident, nC
common basis. and comparison would
be misleading. Other circumstances
tend to vitiate comparisons, such, tol
example. as the differences between
agricultural and manufacturing com.
munities. between urban and rustic
communities and between natives and
immigrants.
Despite the multiplication of new
laws and new crimes and the greater
activity of the courts and the statisti-
clans, crime is not. it is believed. ma
terially increasing. In some countries
England. for eNample-both crime
and pauperism are decreasing. In the
United States the statistics seem to
show an increase-generally an alarm
ING increase-but this. Mr. Wright
thinks, i; more apparent than real. In
1880 the number Of convicts i'll PEN
tantiaries was 1888. or 100 to the
million of population. In 1890 the
number of convicts was 5.233, or I22
to the million OF population. VI the
convicts one-third. it was found, were
native whites, one-third were negroes
and one-third were foreign born. Up
ON the whole, it is concluded that our
statistics of crime. whether reliable or
otherwise, do not show Il very consid-
cradle increase. In the opinion of F.
III. Wines, the expert in charge Of
criminal statistics of the last census.
''crime of a serious character is rather
on the decline in this country than on
the increase
Secretary Carlisle seems to be still