The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-05-27
CRIME AND WEATHER
HEAT IS FOUND TO BE LARGELY RE-
SPOaSlBLE FOR LAWBREAkiNG. :
New Theory OF Crime Based on Recent
Discoveries = Some Remarkable Coinci-
dences Accounted For-Cold Is Conducive
20 Sanity.

Oences accounted ror-SOlO Is Oouuuciso
70 Sanity.
BY far tho most interesting thing in the
criminal statistics just issued In England
Is Mr.. Troup's demonstration Of the de-
pendence of crime upon the weather. This
goes much further than the mere discovery
of a coincidence between certain forms Of
crime and certain seasons of the year.
That would be nothing new. 1t was OBJ
served by Mr.. Troup in his introduction
to the returns Of 1893, and yet observa-
ton did not prevent him from adding that
q direct connection between crime and
temperature had not been made out. But
now, after a close study Of the returns foi
1895 (the criminal statistics arc still SO
far behind), Mr.. Troup says he wishes to
qualify that remark-that Is to say, he
now does think that direct connection
between crime and temperature is made
out
The connection Is graphically shown In
q series Of diagrams. The science of sta.
tistics, by the way, is enormously lightened
and enlivened by these diagrams, which
are to figures what pictures are to poetry
and prose. Many people cannot gasp the
meaning Of figures, but the diagram makes
1t as plain as pikestaff, and not only does
1t do this service to the unlearned In arith.
metic, but 1t reveals even to the expert
some unexpected meanings. For example,
In this volume Of criminal statistics the
first diagram is arranged in this way:
The years from 1881 to 1896 are repre-.
sented by perpendicular lines. Upon these
lines Is scale Of degrees, each represent
ing tens Just above the twenty third de-
gree, representing therefore more than 230
and less than $40, line starts to cross
the line Of years. This line Is labeled "all
crimes" and 1t tells the eye that the pro.
portion of all crimes to 100, 900 Of the pop
ulation In 1881 was 233. The line takes
an upward course and reaches $40 as II
crosses the year 1889; then 1t gradually
descends till 1t reaches 1887. where we find
1t at 2O2. 1t rises and falls little In its
passage across the other years, but in the
main takes @ downward tendency, stop.
ping in 1896 we'll under 170-a small fig.
ure gives 167 as the exact proportion.
Here, then, In one line you have vividly
brought before you the course Of crime In
10 years-a satisfactory course of dimiDu
tion. But that ia only small part OF the
uses of the diagram. Its chief value 10 f0i
purposes OF comparison.
Another line Just below is made to trace
the course Of q particular class Of crimes
larcenies-and it Is found that at lower
level it follows with marvellous exactituds
the same directions as the other, bringing
out clearly, as Mr.. Troup says, the fact that
the total Of all indictable ofYenses il com
pletely dominated by the figures for iarce
ny, which enormously outnumber all other
crimes. This shows the necessity Of ex
amining separately the chief heads OF
crime, and then we have a series Of other
diagrams, all teaching their lessons in the
same vivid way. You see the line of sexual
crimes rising up In 18S6-the year after
the passing Of the act which brought them
more under the power of the law-and
then decreasing again, whether by the
operation Of that law or on account of a
diminished zeal in its application, we need
not stop to inquire
Applying this method of comparison t.
temperature and crime in 1895, Mr.. TrouL
traces a line across tho months Of 1896
showing the great depression of February
in that year, when the average tempera
ture was %. 0 degrees. The line rises rapid
ly to June, takes u tolerably even course
till September, then falls smartly in Octo
ber, rises slightly in November and drops
again in December. With this line Mr..
Troup compares the lines of crimes and
apprehensions for crimes in the same peri
od. 1t Is most curious To observe how
many OF these lines make violent DIP
just where the temperature line did-that
is, in the month of February. Some clever
reader will bethink himself that February
is short month and that this is the ex
PLANTATION. But Mr.. Troup was not so sim
pie as to be trapped by his own lines IN
that way. He made allowance for that.
The figures were corrected SO as to apply to
months of 80 days, the actual figures fol
February being increased by one fourteenth
and the actual figures for the months of 81
days being diminished by one-thirty first.
Therefore the comparison is not yitiated
by any irregularity in the monthly divis
ions represented in the diagrams. Mr..
Troup has diagram showing, also by the
fluctuations Of "a line, what was the aver
age number of persons in receipt of relief
in the months compared. 1t naturally
shows rise in the severe 1895 February,
special distress and poverty accompanying
the cold weather. But the line Of Grim.
does not follow this poverty and distres-
line. 1t moves, as we have said, in tn,
same direction as the temperature line
that Is, downward.
From the dip In February the lines
showing the upward or downward move
ment of crimes reported and persons appre
hended move generally upward. There Is
just n little wavering at midsummer, and
again in September; then the lire shoots
rapidly upward in November. Now, from
October to November tho weather, instead
of continuing its normal course toward II
lower temperature, took an upward tend
ency and was much above the average.
Then came the drop again in crime as the
cold weather set in.
Mr.. Troup pursues this interesting meth
od Of inquiry into temperature and crime
by tracing the lines of specified kinds Of
crime, and we see what criminals and Of
tenders were influenced by cold weather
and which of them were unaffected by tho
temperature. The lines of the burglar and
the housebrcakcr do not dip I'm the excess
lively cold February. The win GER is their
season, and the line of 'crimes against
property with violence" Is also little affect
ed 10y the cold. But the depression Is most
marked I'm several crimes, in crimes against
property without violence, in larceny, In