Criminality and economic conditionsBonger, Willem Adriaan
General
Criminality and economic conditions
Bonger, Willem Adriaan
Crime -- Economic aspects
“The parallelism between the growing pauperism and growing criminality
is even more striking when the comparison is applied to the delinquents
under the summary jurisdiction of the justices of the peace. Up to the
time of the establishment of the workhouses in 1834 the number of poor
persons assisted increased progressively from year to year. Well, the
number of persons arrested by the metropolitan police followed the same
progression. This number was 72,824 in 1831, and 77,543 in 1832. In
1833 the new poor law with its terrible workhouses was approaching;
consequently the number of arrests was no more than 69,959. In 1834 the
law was promulgated, and up to 1838 was executed with great rigor; as a
result the number of arrests fell to 64,269 in 1834, to 63,674 in 1835,
and to 63,584 in 1836. In 1837 the severity began to relax;
consequently the number of arrests increased to 64,416. In 1839 the
laxity continued, and the number of arrests increased to 70,717. Laxity
reached its height in 1842, and the number of arrests rose to 76,545;
this was an arrest to each 25 of the population.
“In Newcastle in 1837 the magistrates sentenced 1 person to 24 of the
whole population. In Leeds during a period of six years, from 1833 to
1838, there was one person arrested to 32 of the population. In
Manchester in 1841 ... the ratio of persons arrested, to the
population, was as 1 to 21.... In 1831, ten years earlier, the
proportion was still only 1 to 78. It almost quadrupled, then, in the
interval. In Liverpool in 1840 there was one arrest to 12 inhabitants.”
[39]
V.
G. MAYR.
The statistical data that form the basis of Dr. Mayr’s “Statistik der
gerichtlichen Polizei im Königreiche Bayern und in einigen anderen
Ländern” are different from those used in similar works. For, while
generally only the number of crimes whose authors have been convicted,
or that of delinquents punished, are considered, Dr. Mayr is of the
opinion that to obtain a true picture of the morality of a people, it
is necessary to take into account the number of crimes known to the
police. “If we wish really to form an exact picture of the moral
condition of a people, we must first of all ask ourselves the question,
how great is the number of the cases of crimes of different kinds that
are of common notoriety, before we ask how great is the number of the
individuals who are convicted of these crimes. The immorality of a
people is determined not by the number of individuals convicted, but by
the number of crimes committed; else that people would be most moral in
which no offender ever let himself be caught, even if more crimes were
committed there than elsewhere.” [40]
BAVARIA.
The results of Dr. Mayr’s researches in regard to crime in this country
are shown by him in a number of charts. [41]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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