The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-03-24
Education and Crime.

Whether crime diminishes in a given
country In proportion as education is moro
widely ditfused therein is a question con-
corning which there has been some dispute.
Those who would answer the question In
| the negative point to the fact that, in
highly enlightened countries, like Sweden.
almost all OF the occupants of prisons are
able to read and write. Such a phenomenon
might be expected In any country where
the percentage OF illltcracy is very small.
for no one prctcnds that n human
being can be rendered absolutely i'm
mune to temptation or to criminal in
stincts by attendance In public schools
for a few years. Much may depend.
also, on the nature Of the instruction
impaired. In some educational systems,
| religion and ethics enter into the %curriru-
lum; in others it Is solely the intellect that
Is trained.
To ascertain the relation Of a purely
secular education to crime We need
such statistics as will be furnished some
years hence in France, anu which will
enable Va to say whether crime is more
prevalent among the graduates Of the State
schools, or among the graduates Of the
schools conducted by the religious orders.
though here the social classes from which
| the several pupils were drawn and the
effect Of home influences would have 10
be, likewise, considered. In the British
system OF public education, the founda-
lions OF which were laid In 1870 by
the Forster act, q certain amount OF
instruction is given In ethics and in the
religious principles which are common to
all Christian creeds, Although the amount
of time given to this kind OF teaching Is
denounced in some quarters as excessive
and in others as inadequate, We must
recognize IL IA at least one Of the agencies
by which the minds and characters OF
pupils in the national schools are trained.
British statistics, therefore. do not supply
a decisive test OF the influence which
education would exercise upon crime, If the
intellect alone were disciplined and stored,
but, as by far the greater part Of the school
hours are allotted to intellectual pursuits,
we cannot deny to such statistics a con-
siderable value.
This preliminary caution may be needed,
lest We attach too much Importance to the
surprising data which nave been lately pub
liShed in England and which have led the
Secretary Of the Education Department,
Sir GEORGE KEREwICH, to say: Every
time | hear Of a new school being opened I
say to myself, There goes another
prison" Whether we choose to see in the
figures a mere coincidence or the relation
Of cause and effect, there Is no doubt that,
during the last thirty years, every extern
sion Of popular education in England and
Wales has been accompanied by a relative
and generally an absolute decrease in
crime. Thus. in 1870, when the number Of
children attending school was 1893, O5p,
there were 1875 prisons and 29,O5O pris-
oners. In 1880, when the scholars num-
hered 3 1893, 324, there were ~ prisons and
30, 719 prisoners. Ten years later. when
the number of scholars in England and
Wales had risen to 1904, 10, there were
- prisons md but 10, S06 prisoners.
Finally, in 1899, when the scholars num-
hcrrd 5,6Ol. 2i9, there were only sc prls-
ons, and the number Of prisoners had
dropped to 1867. These figures become
still more striking when We take into view
the progressive increase in the population.
Between 1860 and 1870, the latter year
being that in which the Forster Education
Act was passed. tho population had in
creased IL per cent, but the number Of
criminals had increased nearly % per cent,
or almost twic" as fast as the popula-
ton. Between 1870 and 1880. on the
other hand, the increase in the num-
Der Of criminals fell to under half of one
per cent, although tn" population increased
by 10 per cent,
We come now to the decade from 1850 to
1890, when the influence Of tho national
schools upon the adult population made it.
self felt in n marked and increasing degree.
During those ten years the number Of pris-
oncrs was absolutely reduced by over 80
per cent, although the population had in.
creased by nearly II per cent. We shall
not know definitely unit. 1901 the present
population of England and Wales, but We
know that, in 1899, the number Of pris-
Uucrs was already smaller 10y 200 than il
had been In 1890, though the school
attendance had increased hv nearly
100000. If the number of prisoners
last year had borne the same propor-
ton to the population that il did
in the year when the Education act was
passed. England and Wales would now
have a daily average prison population Of
40, 534 instead Of 1857. In SIN another
way may the inverse ratio sub5isting he.