The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-03-21
L 6. Leads In Crime

THE most lawless land in the world is America.
This unpleasant fact comes as shock to US When-
ever the truth Is brought home with a fresh COM
pilauon OF crime statistics.
DR. Frederick l. Hoffman, the Prudential Lie IN
s1Irance Conlpany's statistican, has published the
new edition Of his annual analysis Of the homicide
records OF IA American cities with total population
OF 100000.
Il shows that the rate Of death by violence has
doubled in thirty years The average rate of homl-
cides in 1929 was 105 to 100000 That compares with
the latest figure for England and Wales of o5, We
are more than twenty times as laTle5s as the English
Why?
prohibition is an important factor, according to
Hoffman:
'eBy common consent the enforcement Of prohi-
hilton has brought into existence organization OF
crime and criminals such as no other country on the
face Of the globe ever has known. Enforcement OF
the law itself has created large number OF violent
deaths classified homicides'
Drvs of course DO not like to face this fact Never
thcess no amount Of denial can obscure the truth,
of which there is common and constant evidence,
apart from this and other statistical studies, that
prohibition is major factor in high homicide
rate To be sure, it is not the only factor.
But what the other causes are is very difficult to
determine.
A frequent explanation of American lawlessness
is our frontier" mentality and habits Whatever
validity such explanation may have had in the past
it has little or none today Anyway, the point OF the
Hoffman figures is that homicides today are double
the rate Of 1900 when we're nearer the wild
west era.
A second common explanation is the melting pot
Recent incomplete studies however. show that lnli-
grant groups furnish less rather than of their
proportonate quota of American crime.
chic a7,1eiO set
should have been going down since immigration re-
stricton: While, in TACT, it has gone up. Finally,
Canada with a larger immigration ratio to popula-
ton than ours has a homicide rate Of only l3 com
pared with los
A third explanation IS our Negro population. The
ten cities with the highest homicide rate were all
southern. ranging from Memphis with a rate OF 668
and Birmingham. sis to Covington, with 28.8, and
AHouston, PIG
| Hoffman explains this high southern average is
70 be found IN :he habit of gun toting"; for in
ltance the propo. Of homicide deaths by firearms
vas 768 per cent III Memphis and 1876 in Birmingham
compared with IS Boston.
Admitting for the sake of argument that the Negro
population raises disproportiOnately the southern
homicide rate there are several reasons why alleged
Negro lavessneSs can not be the major factor in the
national crime average
Fer ono reason, American cities with negligible
Negro populations have much higher crime rates than
comparable foreign cities For another reason, north
ern American cities having higher than average pro-
portion Of Negro population. such New York have
a lower homicide rate than the average city.
Thus We are driven to conclude that of the many
causes responsible in small or large measure for
America barbarous homicide prohibition is the
major cause most apparent.