The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-11-08
STUDIES IN CRIME.

From the Philadelphia Times.
There are $3.50 prisoners in the United
States today occupying penitentiaries,
state prisons, county jails and other
places of confinement. In addition to
| these there are 32S9 persons who are
under indictment to answer charges of
one or another description In the GRIM
inal courts who are at liberty on bail,
while 1852 offenders against the laws Of
state or nation are fugitives from justice,
whether in or out of the country no one
knows. This is a surprising number in
proportion to a population of 20, 900 0O0-
over 10000. This means that over la
per cent. of the entire population of the
United States is serving a term in jail or
| awaiting trial for some crime either on
bail or fugitive from a tardy justice.
This Is an astonishing record. Yet the
United States has the best record of any
country in the world in this respect. In
every other country the percentage is
| larger and the number of fugitives par
| ticularly excessive.
The offenses for which these men are
serving terms in the penitentiaries arc
many. They range from murder on COM
muted sentences TO petty larceny. Forty
| five per cent. of all the sentences are
passed for crimes against property, lar
their object monetary gain There are
many crimes against the person commit
ted for the same cause, but IL is impossi-
BILE to disassociate these from others
having other objects in view The whole
number of mencenary crimes can, there
fore, never be accurately determined.
The total number of crimes committee d
| against the person, running the whole
gamut, from assault to murder, are twen-
D
ted in the country. Against the society
are twenty-five per cent. of all the crimes
punished in the United States, bigamy,
felonious assault and similar offenses fig-
urng prominently, while ten per cent OF
the crimes are miscellaneous ones which
II is impossible to classify. Another sur
prising fact is that the proportion Of fe-
male prisoners in the United States held
for crimes against society Is one TO four,
or twenty-five per cent. of all criminals
| so held. This proportion is the more re-
markable when il Is found that OF all
the prisoners in the United States held for
! every variety of cause but six per cent.
are women. The proportion Of the natives
to the foreign classes and to the colored
class among the prisoners in the United
States is interesting. 1t is surprising to
find that less than five per cent. of all
| the prisoners are colored. Foreigners
are much more numerous in the criminal
courts. thirty per cent. perhaps, while
sixty-fve per cent. is represented by the
natives
The study of dependent and defective
| and delinquent classes always has an elc-
| ment OF interest Take the insane and
we find that Of the the total insane In the
United States seven per cent. are coll
ored, twenty-eight per cent are foreigners
and siXty-five per cent, natives. This, OF
course, does not mean that the number
| of insane natives is greater in propos-
| tion TO the population. Judged on this
score the percentage Of native insane is
smaller than in either the foreigners or
the colored class. In sex there Is almost
no difference, the women outnumberlng
the men so slightly that the difference is
| scarcely appreciable. In the pauper
classes we find the relation of classes
very different. But fifty per cent OF
the total number OF paupers are natives,
while forty-one per cent. are foreigners
| and nine per cent are colored. The
women are outnumbered by the men in
the asylums throughout the country by a
ratio of A 10 S. Again the percentage
of native paupers compared to entire
volume OF class population is smaller.
%
The study of society in these various
! phases might be carried on indefinitely