Thus, in eleven years, the imprisonments of female vagrants have fallen off from 5,880 to 548. This, surely, is a good show; and yet in that period our population increased about thirteen and a half per cent, so that, according to the usual law, the commitments should have been this year over 4,700. [The population of New York increased from 814,224, in 1860, to 915,520, in 1870, or only about twelve and a half per cent. The increase in the previous decade was about fifty per cent. There can be no doubt that the falling-off is entirely in the middle classes, who have removed to the neighboring rural districts. The classes from which most of the criminals come have undoubtedly increased, as before, at least fifty per cent. I have retained for ten years, however, the ratio of the census, twelve and a half per cent.] If we turn now to the reports of the Commissioners of Police, the returns are almost equally encouraging, though the classification of arrests does not exactly correspond with that of imprisonments; that is, a person may be arrested for vagrancy, and sentenced for some other offense, and _vice versa._ The reports of arrests of female vagrants ran thus:-- 1861....................2,161 1862....................2,008 1863....................1,728 1867....................1,591 1869....................1,078 1870......................701 1871......................914 We have not, unfortunately, statistics of arrests farther back than 1861. Another crime of young girls is thieving or petty larceny. The rate of commitments runs thus for females:-- 1859......................944 1860......................890 1861......................880 1863....................1,133 1864....................1,131 1865......................877 1869......................989 1870......................746 1871......................572 The increase of this crime daring the war, in the years 1863 and 1864, is very marked; but in twelve years it has fallen from 944 to 572, though, according to the increase of the population, it would have been naturally 1,076. Another heading on the prison records is "Juvenile delinquency," which may include any form of youthful offense not embraced in the other terms. Under this, in 1860, were two hundred and forty (240) females; in 1870, fifty-nine (59). The classification of commitments of those under fifteen years only runs back a few years. The number of little girls imprisoned the past few years is as follows:-- 1863......................408 1864......................295 1865......................275 1868......................239 1870......................218 1871......................212 CRIMES CHECKED AMONG THE BOYS