Houses for receiving stolen goods 3,122
Houses to which thieves and prostitutes resort, viz.:
Public houses 2,402
Beer shops 2,151
Coffee shops 386
Other suspected houses 2,157 7,096
Brothels and houses of ill fame 7,915
Tramps’ lodging houses 6,987
——————
Total houses of bad character 25,120
A curious comparison is given of crimes and arrests. The number of known
crimes of a grave character against the person, and all violent offences
against property (excluding offences dealt with summarily by
magistrates) were 57,868.
Crimes. Arrests.
January, February and March 15,785 7,950
April, May and June 12,895 6,982
July, August and September 12,592 6,698
October, November and December 16,596 8,828
—————— ——————
Total 57,868 30,458
The greater prevalence of crime in the winter months is accounted for on
the ground that employment is more scarce, and the prolonged hours of
darkness afford greater opportunities to commit it. It is obvious that
the return of crimes committed embraces but an inconsiderable portion of
the overt criminal acts in the community. During the period covered by
it, there were upwards of 40,000 known thieves and depredators, and
40,000 suspected persons at large. The former living by thieving must
thieve to live, and it is “clear that a large amount of petty
depredations occur, which, with every allowance for the large summary
jurisdiction exercised in cases of theft, is not represented in the
return, as well as many continued domestic thefts and frauds which are
never detected, or never brought within the cognizance of the police.”
There is an item in the present report which suggests some inquiries
that we should be inclined to pursue if we had space and time. The
common impression is, that men do not _suddenly_ leave the path of
honesty and become rogues as it were by a leap. There may be no overt
act attracting the notice or exciting the suspicion of the most intimate
associates, as a partner in business, a colleague in office, or a fellow
workman or clerk; but nevertheless subsequent revelations usually show
that the crooked path was entered cautiously, by reluctant and
hesitating steps, and some distance trod before there was boldness
enough to take the fatal step. We apprehend this impression is
warranted,—perhaps it is confirmed, rather than weakened,—by the facts
here disclosed. It is undoubtedly true that delinquencies of a positive
and unequivocal character are often kept private, and the offending
parties, after a brief interval, betake themselves again to evil
courses; and when some act of gross turpitude is exposed, it is regarded
as the first development of a depraved character, whereas in fact it is
only the last of a long series of criminal acts. How far such
concealment is justifiable, or to what extent it is the means of saving
persons from an abandonment to a criminal life, we are not prepared to
say. But cases are not rare in which a desire to save an individual from
infamy, and perhaps a circle of friends from mortification, has induced
confidence to be reposed where it was undeserved, and so has been the
means of much deeper injury to much higher interests. Very few instances
occur in which a grave offence is committed, especially against
property, by parties who had never before been known to swerve from
honesty.
The present report shows, that of 30,458 persons, 5,398 were of previous
good character, and 7,886 were known to be of bad character. Out of
404,034 proceeded against summarily, 148,178 were of “previous good
character,” and of 130,502 it was not known to be bad.
The Report of Coroner’s inquests for the year gives a total of 19,846,
against 20,167 in 1857, and 22,221 in 1856. The diminution is ascribed
to the fact that in 1856 the rule was established not to allow the
expenses of inquests when it turned out that the death ensued from
natural causes, and without any ground to suspect a criminal act or
culpable neglect; and it is also alleged, that police officers are not
disposed to give notice of cases that might properly fall under the
Coroner’s investigation. There is, certainly, a singular uniformity in
the operation of the causes that result in death by violence and
accident. When we think of the changes in the condition of society—the
fluctuations of business—and the excitements of passion, it seems
scarcely credible that so comparatively slight a variation should occur
in a succession of years; for example:—
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┬─────┬─────┬─────┐
│ │1858.│1857.│1856.│
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────┼─────┼─────┤
│Murder │ 183│ 184│ 205│
│Manslaughter │ 197│ 187│ 271│
│Justifiable Homicide │ 4│ 6│ 6│
│Suicide, or Self-murder │1,275│1,349│1,314│
│Accidental Death │8,947│8,930│9,716│
│Injuries from causes unknown │ 764│ 237│ 424│
│Found dead │2,611│2,949│3,183│
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────┴─────┴─────┘
Only 1 difference in the murders of 1857 and 1858, only 10 in
manslaughter, and only 17 in accidental deaths; and in suicides, only 35
difference between 1856 and 1857.
It is worthy of remark that, of the 19,846 inquests held, 5,517 were
children seven years old or under, and 3,318 were aged or infirm persons
over sixty; showing that 44½ per cent. were persons least able to
protect themselves from accident or injury. The average cost of each
inquest was $15 dollars.
The total number of convicts in custody during the year was 11,292, of
whom 1,326 were women. Of the whole number, 110 died, 3 escaped, and
only 36 were pardoned! The daily average, for the year, was 7,859, and
the annual cost of each prisoner was $157.50, or about 42 cents per day.
This sum is subject to a reduction to the extent of the value of their
labor.
The Reformatory Schools have risen from 1 in 1854, to 47 in 1858; and
the number of inmates, from 21 to 700. To these schools, the government
allows $1.75 per week, for each inmate; and the Managers have authority
to require a contribution from the parents, when able. From the former
source $127,844 were received, and from parents $3,738; showing the cost
of each inmate, under these items alone, to be $187 per annum; and the
Report has no allusion to their labor as of any value. The average cost
in any House of Refuge in the United States, with which we are
acquainted, does not much exceed $100.
There is now an extension of the system of Reformatory Schools, which
will doubtless prove of much value. The law authorizes a provisional
commitment, to certified industrial schools, of children taken into
custody on a charge of vagrancy,—after due inquiry into the condition of
their parents, and of the circumstances of their arrest,—to be detained
till fifteen years of age, unless suitable provision is made for their
care and employment elsewhere. The present (1859) is the first year of
its operation.
It is not easy even to approximate an estimate, in money, of the cost to
which crime subjects a community. Sixty years ago, Colquhoun, in his
work on the “Police of the Metropolis,” estimated the loss by
depredation, in London alone, at ten millions of dollars; and the
Watch-Committee of Liverpool, in an elaborate report in 1836, stated the
loss in that borough, by depredation, at not less than three million
five hundred thousand dollars, declaring that this was not exaggerated,
but, on the contrary, much less than the actual amount. We suppose that
in such an estimate are included, not only the property abstracted by
theft and robbery, but also the fruits of the various species of frauds
on the government and on public institutions, fraudulent bankruptcies,
losses by incendiary fires, and various kinds of malicious mischief.
To the value of property sacrificed to crime, must be added the expenses
of police, prosecutions and prisons, amounting to not less than twelve
millions of dollars; and to these we must add a large sum for a
proportion of the salaries of judges and justices, and their clerks; the
maintenance of court-houses; costs of coroners’ inquests; expenses of
sheriffs; costs of prosecution by public bodies, and costs paid by
private prosecutors over and above the costs allowed; charges for
convicts and colonies, &c.
We have a sound basis for an estimate sufficiently impressive. There is
a standing army of one hundred and thirty-five thousand men and women,
at war with the community, and living on plunder and vice,—yesterday,
engaged in depredations upon property—to-day, rioting in reckless
extravagance,—to-morrow, reduced to pinching want. Supposing each of
them to spend one hundred and twenty-five dollars a year,—say two and a
half dollars a week, we have a sum total of nearly seventeen
millions—and this cannot be levied upon the public at less than double
that sum. This would amount to but a fraction less than thirty-five
millions of dollars, and, with the costs already enumerated, would swell
the grand total to very nearly fifty millions, as the annual expense
which the criminal classes of England and Wales entail upon the
community.
It is to be regretted that we have no reliable data from which to form
even a probable estimate of either the number of criminals or the cost
of crime in any one of our States or cities, so far as our information
extends. If there were such, even in one State or city, an inference, of
more or less value, might be drawn from a comparison of population,
police force, &c. We can scarcely suppose that the incentives to crime
are much more numerous and powerful here than in England. It is not
found that crime abounds most in seasons of depression in business or of
reduction of wages or employment, but the contrary; and therefore, the
facilities with which people in our country obtain a living may,
perhaps, rather promote than prevent crime. That we make much less of
all crime here than is made in the older countries, is very obvious; and
that escape or impunity is much more common here than there, will not be
denied: so that, on the whole, we may reasonably conclude that if the
tax imposed on the public, as the direct consequence of crime, could be
ascertained, its enormous amount would awaken an interest in the means
of preventing or suppressing it, which the considerations of humanity
and religion seem inadequate to excite.