Criminality and economic conditionsBonger, Willem Adriaan
General
Criminality and economic conditions
Bonger, Willem Adriaan
Crime -- Economic aspects
Let us consider now the last three diagrams. Dr. Tugan-Baranowsky
attributes the descent of the curve of criminality in Diagram 4 to the
improved condition of the agricultural population. Further, the number
of crimes was greatly diminished by the alteration in the criminal
procedure in 1879, and it goes without saying that this influence must
also be taken into account in studying the last two diagrams. By
Diagrams 5 and 6 we see that the influence of criminality is much less
marked. Thus, for example, the diminution of criminality was not
prevented by the crisis at the beginning of the period 1890–1896.
The final conclusion of Dr. Tugan-Baranowsky is this: “The first three
diagrams give a picture of the life of the English people in the second
quarter of this century [the nineteenth]. We see abrupt periodical
changes of important phenomena in the life of the people, which are
plainly connected with the changes in the industrial situation.
Especially sudden are the variations in the life of the industrial
population. Each crisis has a devastating effect upon the ranks of the
working-classes, the workhouses are swamped with the unemployed, the
prisons fill up as well, mortality mounts enormously, the mass of
people out of work readily take up with any political agitation, and
the years of crisis are likewise years of revolutionary movements.
“At the same time the manufacturing and commerce of the country
increase rapidly. The enormous growth of exportation in England, the
curve of which mounts continually, is in sharp contrast with the
deterioration of the living-conditions of the working-class.
“The last three diagrams show us an entirely different picture. English
exports no longer increase. In place of a steady rise of the curve with
a sharp depression in the critical years, there are regular, wave-like
variations in the same plane. The industrial development of the country
proceeds at a slackening pace.
“And at the same time in the life of the people there are signs to be
noticed of increasing well-being. Mortality, criminality, and pauperism
fall quickly. Crises no longer have their former influence upon the
condition of the people. Even in manufacturing districts business
stagnation no longer has its former disastrous effect upon the
working-class; crime and the death-rate no longer increase, and even
the increase in the number of paupers is hardly noticeable. Organized
labor supports even the unemployed. Wages are only a little lower in
years of industrial depression than they are in a time of prosperity!”
[DIAGRAM No. 1. (TUGAN-BARANOWSKY)]
[DIAGRAM No. 2. (TUGAN-BARANOWSKY)]
[DIAGRAM No. 3. (TUGAN-BARANOWSKY)]
[DIAGRAM No. 4. (TUGAN-BARANOWSKY)]
[DIAGRAM No. 5. (TUGAN-BARANOWSKY)]
[DIAGRAM No. 6. (TUGAN-BARANOWSKY)]
XVI.
E. TARNOWSKY. [75]
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