========+=================+================+================== | | |Against the State, Years. |Against Property.|Against Persons.|Public Order, and | | | Religion. --------+-----------------+----------------+------------------ 1882 | 545 | 328 | 180 1883 | 520 | 343 | 174 1884 | 527 | 382 | 188 1885 | 492 | 385 | 185 1886 | 488 | 402 | 196 1887 | 475 | 421 | 203 1888 | 466 | 404 | 200 1889 | 503 | 423 | 197 1890 | 496 | 449 | 199 1891 | 520 | 443 | 190 1892 | 575 | 458 | 199 1882-91 | 510 | 404 | 194 1894 | 528 | 527 | 219 ========+=================+================+================== Now, the causes that make crime increase when there is an economic depression are, according to the author, the following: “The instinct of self-preservation, which in its harmonious development is the motive for the lawful and moral struggle of men for existence, and in more restricted form is the principal ground for industrial activity, in its degeneration ... demands a certain, often high, percentage of victims, who fall into crime, especially theft, fraud, embezzlement, and other offenses against property. And experience shows that the greater the care to maintain existence, or often simply to procure daily bread, the greater is the number of offenses against property. When need appears, at the same time comes the instinct impelling a man to seize the property of another, better situated than himself. Infractions of property are in part to be ascribed to other motives. There is nothing to show, however, that these motives (greed and covetousness, for example) are stronger in one year and weaker in another throughout a whole people. We must rather ascribe to them a certain uniformity in their influence upon criminal activity. The determining factor in the increase and decrease of crimes remains the general well-being of a people, in earlier times the price of the necessities of life, at the present the opportunity for employment.” [77] Let us study in the first place crimes and misdemeanors against property: I. Offenses, against Property. Prussia, 1854–1878. New Cases to 100,000 of the Population.