304

Serious Crime in England

specialists have voiced these same sad views. Crime is increasing rapidly, and our existing penal systems are powerless against it. Professor Von Liszt, an eminent German jurist, has felt himself compelled to this belief by his recent wide survey of these important problems. Have we really good cause for great anxiety and fear? What do statistics tell us concerning old and serious forms of crime? Is there a progressive increase among heinous criminals? It is certainly worth our while to investigate.'

England. The total number of persons arraigned for serious crimes before the high courts of England and Wales, from 1857 to 1896, were as follows:

ENGLAND AND WALES.-TOTAL NUMBER OF PERSONS FOR TRIAL AT ASSIZES AND QUARTER SESSIONS.

Social pressure against heinous criminals appears to have been exceedingly successful in England during the last half century. Serious crime has very greatly decreased, both in actual numbers, and yet more notably in proportion to the

1 But international comparison should be avoided (except, perhaps, in the case of an offence like homicide), for the forms of crime judged by the higher criminal courts are far more numerous in some nations than in others, and this not alone on account of the varying degrees of criminal heinousness attached by different peoples to the same act, but also, and chiefly, because some nations, like the French, Italians and Austrians, have three different grades of criminal offencesserious crimes, delites and contraventions-while the English and Americans have but two-serious crimes and misdemeanors-and the Germans only one (so far at least as their statistics are concerned), all offences, grave and petty, being grouped together, as crimes against the person, property or the state.

population. The totals have grown steadily less and less since the early sixties, and the statistics for Ireland give exactly the same pleasing results.

IRELAND.-TOTAL NUMBER OF PERSONS FOR TRIAL AT ASSIZes and QuarteR

But perhaps the United Kingdom stands alone in happy isolation as to this retreating march of serious crime?

France. The French national statistics extend from 1826, and, with care, are comparable safely throughout their entire length, a period of seventy years. Courts of Assize (Cours D'Assises) do not have jurisdiction over so large a proportion of criminal acts as do the Assizes and Quarter Sessions in England; for the French possess Correctional Tribunals (Tribunaux Correctionnels) dealing with delites, a class of offences midway between serious crimes and police court misdemeanors.

FRANCE. TOTAL NUMBER OF PERSONS FOR TRIAL AT ASSIZES.

306

Serious Crime in France

French statistics evidently support the English. The totals of most serious crime show a persistent decrease in actual numbers, from more than 7,000 to less than 4,000 persons held for trial; while in proportion to population the diminution is far more than half, from 22.38 to 10.39, for each 100,000 inhabitants. This is encouraging. But do these figures tell "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" Many persons doubt the competency of statistics as witnesses at all times, but especially perhaps in criminal matters. Let us look very closely and critically, but I trust not wearyingly, at them for a moment, to get a glimpse of the strong currents at work beneath the quiet surface of this sheet of crime; and see whether, like a great Gulf Stream, some marked change in judicial procedure may not have borne silently away a large portion of these French criminals, simply to deposit them in other tables of statistics? What do expert statisticians think of the relia bility of the evidence presented by these figures, so laboriously and carefully collected during seventy years of modern life? The great object is to find the truth, irrespective of any theory whatsoever, and truth is not always easy to discern.

Reasons for Decrease in the Totals of Serious Crime.

From 1826 to 1855 the average annual number of prisoners held for trial before the French courts of Assize did not vary greatly, but in proportion to population there was a sensible decrease, from 22.38 per 100,000 at the beginning of the period, to 19.85 at the close. After 1855, the totals decrease rapidly-a decrease accentuated in 1870 under the influence of war, when by far the lowest total, 3,501, was reached. [Laws silent in the midst of arms: society disorganized.] Then followed a reaction and somewhat larger numbers, falling again from 1875-80 and con

tinuing to decline until the present time, when the figures again fall below 4,000, and continue there. The principal cause of the reduction since 1855 is the custom, more and more generally observed, of passing over the aggravating circumstances of certain crimes in order to bring offenders before the correctional tribunals, which inflict a surer, though lighter penalty. This practice, called "la correctionnalisation," has thus come about in the interest of the social welfare, because juries oftentimes refused to convict where punishments they deemed too heavy would surely follow under the law, and also to diminish the expenses of criminal prosecutions. By this practice France has accomplished much the same result as England by the repeal of old and cruel laws, and the enactment of lighter penalties. In both countries, the growing moral sense of the community demanded less severe punishment, if evil acts were to be punished as crimes. The reply to this demand, in milder criminal procedure, has brought to both nations increased criminal prosecutions before the lower courts; additions to the acts punished as crimes, and a consequent multiplication of criminals. Laws of 7th August and 18th October, 1848, permitted the introduction of this extra-legal "correctionnalisation" into the French courts. In the statistics for 1856-60 its great influence is plainly manifest. It has become a firmly seated judicial custom, and is said to be conducted with much discernment and justice. A law of 1863 has also contributed to reduce the number of prisoners (prévenus) tried before a jury, by placing certain crimes, such as cuts and blows, corruption, false witness in certain cases, and menaces within the jurisdiction of the inferior courts. But after making full allowance for correctionalization, French statisticians believe that the amount of serious criminality has certainly been diminished. The thirty years before this system of extenuating circumstances

308

Austria and Italy

was introduced, show a very considerable decrease in proportion to population; and during the fifteen years 1881 to 1895, when the effects of the changed procedure and of the legislation of 1863 may be considered to have worked themselves out, the decrease has also been noteworthy, both in actual number of offenders and in proportion to population.

In England, as we have seen, the need of lighter punishments, if malefactors were to continue criminals, resulted in the direct legal transfer of large classes of offenders to the jurisdiction of the inferior courts. This change was introduced in 1855, and in 1879 its sphere of influence was very greatly extended. The effect upon the statistics was immediate; not diffused over a long period of time, as in France. Therefore we can the more easily and accurately make allowance for it, and may rest secure in the belief that English judicial statistics since 1858 reveal the truth as to the great decrease of serious criminality throughout the nation.

Germany does not separate her statistics of serious crime. from those of minor offences. The great recent growth of her delinquency, as a whole, has already been noted, and its more searching examination later will reveal some interesting and important tendencies in the modern march of crime.

Austria and Italy have been passing through great political changes and developments since 1860. The progress in modern forms of industry and trade has also been noteworthy. In both nations the criminal population has been increasing with startling rapidity. Have serious criminals. multiplied in like proportion? For Austria, apparently yes, at first sight. The totals mount rapidly from 1860 to 1880, only to be followed by an almost equally rapid fall during the ten years from 1886 to 1895, so that in proportion to population the Austrian statistics show a considerably less. number of condemned for serious crimes for 1886-95 than