The study of the child-psyche throws light upon the age at which children are especially liable to commit punishable offences, and upon the character of these. The character of the punishable offences committed by children is a natural consequence of the child-nature, whose especial characteristics are impulsiveness and acquisitiveness. It is chiefly on this account that among the punishable offences committed by children, theft is the most frequent, and next to this comes bodily injury. Punishable offences requiring strength, adroitness, or deliberation can hardly be undertaken by children. Sexual offences are committed by those children only in whom the sexual life is already awakening. Grievous bodily harm is effected only by those whose bodily strength is fully developed. Complicated criminal offences can be undertaken by children only when they possess special experience and training. Younger children commit fewer punishable offences than older ones, and different offences, their capacity being less, and their opportunities more limited. The suggestive influence of the adult criminal is very great; he exploits the youthful criminal, and by threats and chastisement forces him into criminal courses. During the nineteenth century, the number of criminals, of recidivists, of punishable offences, and the gravity of these latter, has increased to a greater extent than the population. The number of offences against public order, and of crimes against the person, has indeed diminished, but the number of crimes against property, and of offences against morality, has disproportionately increased. The number of the most serious crimes is smaller, but the number of relapses into crime has greatly increased. During the nineteenth century, the number of juvenile criminals has also increased. The glitter of the industrial development of the nineteenth century has to be paid for in large part by the gigantic increase in juvenile criminality. In all the civilised countries of Europe, with the exception of England, there has been an extraordinary increase in the number of youthful criminals, and in the number of punishable offences committed by them, this increase being greater than the increase in the number of criminals and of criminal offences in general. In the case of juvenile criminals, there has also been an increase in the number of habitual offenders, as well as in the gravity of the punishable offences. Perhaps the most important difference between the older criminality and the newer, is that to-day the juvenile criminal and the habitual offender are more in evidence. Unquestionably these two phenomena are closely associated, for the great majority of professional criminals are persons whose first criminal offence was committed during childhood or youth. At the present day, in all the civilised countries of Europe, about 25 per cent. of all punishable offences are committed by young persons.