The record-union., 1899-09-23
CRIME, MARRIAGE AND BACHE-
LORHOOD.


LORHOOD.
1t would seem at first thought that it
was wholly unnecessary for DR.. Freder-
lex Prinzing to have gone into labcred
statistical Investigation to show that
marriage lessons crime: that married
men are more law abiding than bache-
lors. That, we had supposed the whole
world acknowledged, because domestic
life has a tendency to withdraw one
from temptation and those habits
which demoralize and degrade.
However, the learned scientist would
not take it for granted, and has COM
pleted long labor in statistics, by
which he arrives at a conclusion that
agrees with the accepted belief. But
when he asserts that widoWers are
worse transgressors against law than
either married men or bachelors. we
confess that he arouses unusual in
terest in his subject
His line Of argument would seem to
support the doctrine that break in
habit creates a new emotion, and that
to its influence we are subject in a
peculiar degree. Our susceptibility to
social influence is a trait Of married
widower, when the domestic circle is
broken up and one is deprived of his
life's partner, he more drifts into i'm
moral and immodest ways than men
who have never felt the sweet re-
straints Of matrimony?
The doctor argues that property rights
Of all kinds are generally more re-
speeted by married than by single men.
And the reason for this we do not
need to go far to find. The obliga-
tions, restraint, affection and other ties
of the home of which he is the head
operate to withdraw the man from
temptation to trespass upon rights.
Likewise IN defense of his own rights
he is less prone to be an offender.
All these and other reasons suggest
themselves to us in support Of the
statement Of the scientist. But why
are widowers less law-abiding than
either bachelors or married men? The
doctor has no better reason to offer
than the fact that his statistics prove,
if they prove anything, that trespass
against the rights of property are more
common among men marrying at a
youthful age than among the unmar-
ried Of a corresponding age; that is TO
say, is to, %. Graver offenses, like rob-
berry, fraud. etc., are committed by the
married with comparative infrequency.
But where the man is married at an
early age, poverty is frequently an ac-
compartment. and this may account for
the showing against those married in
early years.
But incendiar1sm, one Of the gravest
Of crimes, the statstician finds most
largely among the unmarried, the
greatest proportion falling to widowers
and to single men between the ages
Of 80 and 60. In the offenses against
human life the unmarried are the
greatest offenders, and in offenses
against property rights they are still
greater sinners Extracts from the
doctors paper will serve to fortify his
claim, singularly surprising, though We
confess 1t TO be:
Only IN the matter Of careless ana
negligent killing and wounding do the
married surpass the unmarried. The
difference in the criminality Of the
married and the unmarried grows less
with advancing years. Between the
ages Of 90 and go years it is small;
after that period it is still less.
1t Is OF interest to note in this connec-
tion that drunkenness claims the major
share OF its victims between the ages
of 30 and 90 years. The criminality
of widowers decreases with advancing
age. Their share in crime between the
ages OF 80 and 80 is notably greater
than that Of either Of the other classes
mentioned. It has been said,
in attempted explanation of this fact
that widowers are, as a rule, i'll situ-
ated financially, but there appears to
be no satisfactory evidence that this is
true. Statistics do not prove that
widowers belong to the poorer classes
in any unusual degree. Widowers are
especially prominent in offenses against
property; but they also stand first in
the series of those guilty of other
classes of crime. The loss of wife very
frequently leads to mental 'derange-
ment, and it is probably true, as well,
that certain types of self-control are
peculiarly difficult for this class to ex-
ercise.
Certain of the sensational and reck-
less San Francisco press take peculiar