FEMALES.

MALES AND FEMALES.

15

221291Q

122841♡

29624

*828874

15

14

CHAPTER V.

NATURE, EXTENT, AND LOCALITIES OF CRIME.

THE branch of our subject which is now to occupy the reader's attention presents one of the most repulsive of the anti-social aspects of the age; but as the amount of crime existing within a county is generally admitted to be one of the most important of the facts necessary to be known by the student of society, and one of the best indexes we have to the moral condition and degree of civilisation of the people; and, as no account of their condition can be complete without it, we need not apologise for bringing the hideous catalogue of offences into view. Without such knowledge it must be very difficult to form an accurate opinion as to the extent and manner in which a proposed measure will affect the social state of the laboring classes. A greater or less prevalency of any particular species of crime, is often a valuable criterion of improving health, or growing disease, either in a certain district or particular class of the community. In the following pages we shall endeavor faithfully to exhibit the nature, extent, and localities of crime in this county, the ratio of increase during the present century, and the comparative criminality of town and country districts.

Before proceeding to investigate the amount of crime at the present period, we will glance at its history, and examine its progress during the present century; as, by so doing, we shall, perhaps, gain some clue as to what

success has attended the means employed during that period for its diminution. But here we at once face a difficulty-viz., that of determining the real amount of crime at any period. In comparing the number of criminals of the last ten years with those of ten years at the commencement of the century, there are a number of circumstances to be considered that will materially affect the accuracy of the comparison. Statistical returns, comparing the number of prisoners at different periods, are open to many fallacies. The reluctance of prosecutors and witnesses to appear in courts of justice, from the dread of expense and fear of personal injuries, and the consequent inadequate means of bringing offenders to justice, are facts that are well known. Alterations in the criminal law have taken place, as, for instance, in 1834, when the assaults which had previously been summarily disposed of by the magistrates were transferred to the sessions; and, vice versa, in 1848, the petty offences of juveniles were transferred from the quarter sessions to the summary powers of the magistrates. The establishment of the rural police, also, gave increased means of detection. These things naturally lessen the proof of greater criminality, which statistical returns of increased numbers seem to exhibit, and should be borne in mind when comparing different periods. Had we a Register of Offences, as well as a Register of Commitments, we should be able to speak decidedly as to the comparative morality of different periods.

Commencing with the century, we find that in 1801 the criminals were 51 in each 100,000 of the population, in 1821 they were 93, in 1831 they were 134, in 1841, 157, and in 1851 the proportion was 168. Here are wide differences both in the ratio and progress of crime. The attention is at once arrested by the fact of the enormous proportion of crime to population in 1851, as compared with 1801. The absolute increase is shown

increased 56 per cent., crime more than 200 per cent., in the half-century, and this, be it remembered, is only the increase of that portion of detected crime of which the assizes and quarter sessions take cognisance, and which is really but a feeble index to the actual amount of crime committed in the country.

Great fluctuations have occurred in the numbers committed for trial during the last ten years. Comparing 1844 with 1845, the variation is 56 per cent. Since 1834 there have been six years in which the increasing number of commitments have been striking-1836, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1849, and 1851; and two years, 1845 and 1850, in which their decline has been equally conspicuous. In the year 1844 the commitments attained the highest number ever recorded in this county; but the following year exhibited a decrease so great, that the commitments were lower than they have been for 20 years, 1834-53. In 1846 they again increased, and continued to do so (with a trifling variation in 1848) until 1850, when a marked decrease of 12, per cent. was followed in the succeeding year by an alarming increase, amounting to 53 per cent. We append here the number of persons committed in each year since 1833; but as no just conclusion as to the state of crime can be obtained, in consequence of the fluctuations which annually occur, we have grouped the returns into periods of three years, and thus the increase or decrease, calculated on a comparison with the three preceding years, can be easily perceived.

A careful examination of these facts have led us to the conclusion that crime has not increased in this district during the last twenty years to the extent generally believed, nor in an equal ratio with the whole of England. The increase from the years 1834-46, the lowest trio of commitments in the nineteen years, to the years 1850-52, is only about 17 per cent. (and population has increased 12 per cent. during the period), although fluctuations from year to year, amounting to 50 per cent., have occurred. From 1841 to 1851 crime increased 15 per cent., and population only 7 per

cent.

At this stage of the inquiry it seems desirable to look at the ratio of increase of crime in Suffolk, compared with that of the neighbouring counties, and compare its present amount. At the beginning of the century this county stood in a position rather favorable with regard to criminal statistics. Essex and Norfolk were among the counties in which crime was highest, whilst Suffolk was neither among the highest nor the lowest, although below the average of all England. The number of criminals in each 100,000 of the population was in Suffolk 51, in Norfolk 59, in Essex 63-the average of England being 54. The fact manifested in the returns of the next 40 years is of considerable interest. Suffolk is an example of crime having increased most where it was least in 1801. During the first twenty years it increased in this county much more rapidly than either in Essex or Norfolk, and far exceeded the average of England. The increase in Suffolk amounted to 190 per cent., in Essex 154, in Norfolk 83, and in England 112; and up to 1845 the increase was between 200 and 250 per cent. in Suffolk, whilst in Essex and Norfolk the increase was between 150 and 200 per cent.

Having thus given a general sketch of the extent of crime, we will now examine its nature, and the periods of its fluctuations. As may be supposed, a very