ページの画像
PDF
ePub

depend upon the condition of society. If the moral condition of society changes, then this apparently uniform proportion will change also.

In the report for 1861 of the commissioner of statistics for the State of Ohio we find the following: "The great mass of crimes, however, keeps an exact proportion to the. population, and, unless the moral condition of society is changed, will continue to do so. Each year will reproduce the same amount of folly, immorality, and physical excitement, and from this again the same amount of crime. There is no department of statistics which has brought out more remarkable facts or more valuable results than this. It would scarcely be credible, if it were not absolutely proved by the statistics of France, Germany, and the United States, that a community having once subjected itself to certain vicious temptations and influences, must thenceforth produce and endure the same annual amount of crime, suffering, and injury against the happiness of society, in spite of all laws and all the macbinery of restraint which can be invented or enforced. The condition of society remaining the same, the same crimes must result. It is, however, a most mischievous fallacy to suppose that, therefore, these results can not be changed, and that there is an inscrutable fate reproducing the same social evils, without any human power to change results. They will return with the same social condition, but there is no necessity that the same social condition should remain. Society has the power of self-reform. It has the power to take away temptation; to reward virtue; to encourage industry; and to restrain vice. It has the power to defend the individual against social wrongs and temptations which impair his peace and prosperity, quite as much as to embody armies and defend property. For what other purpose was government formed or law enacted?"

In the report of the Bureau of Education for 1871, it was shown that in New England a large number of crimes were caused by ignorance, and a large number by intemperance. On this state of facts, the question comes squarely up: "Has society a right to allow ignorance and intemperance, when they cause crime; when, in fact, they are the great causes of crime?" Society contents itself with punishing crimes, and with making a feeble attempt to reform the criminal. But while it is doing this, it prepares the crime for the criminal to commit. How? By its negative influence. It refuses to prevent crime. How? Society knows that ignorance is blind; that the poor, ignorant man rushes into crime, as he rushes into any thing before him, in total ignorance of the results. Hence the fear of punishment does not deter him, for he hardly ever knows any thing of the law, and is too ignorant of consequences to be afraid. So, also, society knows that the temptations of the "ealoon," the grog-shop, (by whatever name called,) will tempt the weak and ignorant till their inflamed passions lead to crime.

Thus society prepares the crime by its negative influences-its refusal to prevent the causes of crime. So long as society presents the same moral conditions, so long it will present the same proportion of crime; but society has the moral power of self-reform. Shall it be said that society refuses to exercise this power?

The only part of this question we propose to consider here directly is that of education:

All civilized nations are now convinced of the necessity of education, if it were only as a measure of defense. But if it were not so, a mere glance at the comparative conditions, in regard to crime, of educated and barbarous nations, would strike the inquiring mind with conviction. If we go to any barbarous people, such as the rude tribes of Africa, or the aboriginals of the South Sea, we find that such crimes as stealing, homicide, and impurity, are the rule, not the exception. Neither property uor person is safe in such countries beyond the restraint which fear and necessity impose upon such barbarous peoples.

The case is not much better in China, which, apparently more civilized, is, nevertheless, deficient in moral education.

The general fact is apparent that education is a force restraining vice and crime. Where it is purely intellectual, it restrains by teaching the truth expressed in the homely proverb, that "honesty is the best policy." Where it rises to the dignity of a Christian education, it teaches not only the restraint of the intellect, but the higher restraint of the conscience. In either case it is a restraining force, a moral power, over the appetites and passions of men.

Such being the general fact, we shall endeavor to demonstrate it by the statistics both of Europe and America, the latter being derived directly from the prisons, jails, and reformatories of the several States.

THE RELATION OF CRIME TO EDUCATION IN EUROPE.

For the power to exhibit this subject as regards Europe, we are indebted to Dr. E. C. Wines, who, as commissioner of the United States Government to organize the International Prison Congress, propounded a series of questions while traveling in Enrope during 1871. Many of the reports were made under the direct supervision of the Government, and the figures may be taken as thoroughly reliable. We shall use here

only the totals, disregarding minor details. In this way we shall present the relation of crime to education in Europe in the most striking view.

FRANCE.

Of this country, Malte Brun, the scientific geographer, begins his account thus: "The influence of France may be compared to that which ancient Greece possessed over the civilized world. The French language has become the language of courts and embassadors; the literature of the same people has been admired by the enlightened of every nation. The inference of the reader from this declaration must be that the French are really an educated people, and producing the highest results of education in the fruits of humanity and civilization. But if this were said of what is really the nation, that is, of a great mass of the people, it would be entirely untrue, and furnish a signal proof of the superficial manner in which history is written."

In another part of his work, Malte Brun (quoting the tables of Balbi) shows the number of scholars (pupils in school) to be 1 in 23 of the population. The number of children and youth in the public schools of Ohio is rather more than 1 in 4 of the whole population. The number in the schools of France was at that time (1832) only one-sixth the number in proportion to the State of Ohio, or, in other words, of the number that ought to be in school in order to educate the whole people. This is corroborated by another statement, that, in 1833, out of 33,000 French communities, 14,000 were without any schools! In the mean time, great efforts were made to increase popular education; but in 1870 there were still 800 communities totally without schools.

It is said there are now 5,000,000 children attending school, but as the population of France is now 37,000,000, even all that are now claimed to be in school is only 1 in 7.4-that is to say, only about one-half of what would be if the whole people were educated.

In 1856 there were only 63,000 primary schools, which, at the usual proportion of pupils, would give about 4,500,000 pupils, which corresponds with what has been stated, allowing for the increase of 1,200,000 since 1856, as stated by the French govern

ment.

Looking then to the facts above given, that in 1832 only one-sixth of the French people were educated at all; that in 1856, less than one-half were educated, and that in 1870, only a half, we shall be within bounds when we say that in 1870 more than half the French nation were not educated at all. Now let us look at the number and proportion of crimes committed in such a population. Let us take such general facts as we have, without reference to details.

[ocr errors]

Malte Brun gives the average number of births annually at about 900,000, of which 74,000 were illegitimate. This is over 8 per cent. of the whole. If we were to go into any neighborhood we should find each thirteenth child illegitimate. This shows how far ignorance has depraved the morals of the lower classes of the people. But as late as the past year (1871) it is stated in the papers that there had been 4,500 suicides in the city of Paris, which is two hundred fold the proportion which is found in the State of Ohio. If we suppose this to be exaggerated, or as a consequence of the recent war, there will be enough of this tremendous fact remaining to show how the want of the restraining force of education (especially of moral education) affects the very life of society.

Let us now proceed to trace the effect of this great ignorance in France on the number and character of crimes. The record is the most startling and convincing of any thing we have seen in the annals of statistics. Dr. E. C. Wines gives this statement, derived from the best authorities:

Whole number of persons under arrest from 1867 to 1869......

Number unable to read...

Or......

Average number of convicts from 1866 to 1868..

Number unable to read......

Or.......

Average number of juvenile prisoners from 1866 to 1868..
Number unable to read...

Or.....

444, 133,
442, 194

95.63 per cent.

18,643
16, 015

[graphic]

87.28 per cent.

8, 139
6,607

81. 14 per cent.

We have shown above that at least half of the French people is in a state of total ignorance. Let us assume it as just half. At that time France had, in round numbers, 36,000,000 of people. Then we find these proportions; viz:

In 18,000,000 of people "unable to read and write" there were 442,194 arrests; that is, 1 in 41.

In 18,000,000 of people who were commonly educated there were 1,939 arrests; that is, 1 in 9,291.

Thus proving the proportion of criminals in the uneducated classes to be two hundred and twenty-six times as great as that of the educated classes.

The reader may say, "This is an exaggerated case, and, while the facts are apparently true, this proportion will not hold good in other countries."

We shall show in the sequence that the same general principle is true, and that when the people of different countries are more and more educated, then this proportion diminishes, until, if we could imagine such a thing, society would present itself on the one hand thoroughly educated, and on the other hand without crime and without reproach.

ENGLAND.

Our mother country is, in every just sense of the word, England. We therefore look with curious interest to the condition of her education, and its influence upon the production or the cure of crime. Let us look at the facts.

[blocks in formation]

Average of criminals unable to read through all prisons.....

83 per cent.

The prisons of Lenzbourg, Saint Galle, Neuchatel, give these special figures:

[blocks in formation]

From the above we find that the proportion of criminals totally ignorant varies in different countries of Europe from 35 to 95 per cent.; but this does not show the whole truth; for, in the reports from prisons in the United States, it is almost universally said that but few of the whole number have any thing more than the lowest kind of education; and doubtless this is true of Europe. These statistics prove that in Europe ignorance among criminals is the rule, and education the exception.

Let us now examine this question more minutely in regard to our own country.

THE RELATION OF CRIME TO EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Mr. F. B. Sanborne, of Massachusetts, in a report prepared for the International Prison Congress, has made some general remarks upon the statistics of American prisoners, which are very correct. He says: "The general condition of American prison

ers, in point of education, is low, yet they are not so extremely illiterate as criminals are in many countries, if we except the colored criminals of the South.

"In Massachusetts, for a period of eight years past, the statistics show very nearly one-third of all prisoners to be wholly illiterate, yet, in the highest prison, at Charlestown, the proportion of illiterate convicts, since the beginning of 1864, has been scarcely more than 1 in 10."

What Mr. Sanborne has remarked of Massachusetts is in the main true of the whole United States, as will be seen from the numerous tables hereto annexed.

In the great aggregate of criminals the number of the totally illiterate is very large, but is by no means so large as in Europe, for the reason that no part of our country is so densely, ignorant as many parts of Europe. So also, on the other hand, there are some prisous where the number of the illiterate is small, because they are special prisons of cities, where the better educated criminals are apt to be confined. But we need not remark upon these facts till we exhibit the great mass of prison statistics we have gathered from the Middle and Western States.

The statements following give partial returns from seventeen States; all of them but three from the Middle and Western States. The aggregates, in regard to education, sum up as follows, viz:

[blocks in formation]

The discrepancies between the general aggregates and those for color and nativity are caused by the fact that, in some prisons, no record was kept of sex, color, or nativity. And here we take leave to make a general remark on the value of statistics.

All the advances in statesmanship (and it must be admitted there have been great advances in the last century) are due wholly (in connection with the more enlightened teachings of Christianity) to the advance of the science of statistics. If all the legislators, statesmen, and preachers in the world knew precisely the state of facts in society, they could legislate and preach with vastly more effect. Hence, in reference to the subject before us, if we had the exact statistics in regard to the whole prior condition of the criminals, we should know almost exactly how crime was caused, and what measures would, if possible, prevent it. But the statistics of prisons are not only defective in many particulars, but they are inconsistent. One prison gives the statistics of one set of elements, and another of another, and no one of all that ought to be given.

When a prisoner enters a prison, the keeper of that prison should define him exactly as a man of science defines a mineral, au animal, or a bug. He should describe his physical characteristics; his previous social status in regard to parentage, color, condition, and education, moral, religious, and intellectual; his religious, or his want of religious, education, and his habits of life in regard to temperance or intemperance; his industry or idleness. These facts may be obtained, and they would be invaluable. They would show all the causes of crime, and, in showing them, would show the only means of prevention. In regard to the above aggregate facts, it may be observed1. That the whole number of those who can "read only" is described in the reports as in fact "very ignorant." To have learned to spell out words and read a little gives no real knowledge.

2. That the prison reports almost uniformly speak of the great number of those who "can read and write" as very deficient in education.

The general conclusion is that the great mass of prisoners is very ignorant; but, in order to see this more clearly and understand it more thoroughly, we shall analyze in the sequel the special reports of the prisons. In the mean while the general conclusions of the aggregates above, including the observations of the prison-keepers, are as follows:

The totally ignorant, as shown by those having no education, are.......
The totally ignorant and very ignorant....

The very deficient, including these and a large share of those who can
read and write

[graphic]

These proportions are, in regard to the ignorant, much below those of Europe; and they ought to be, for it is beyond all doubt that, except the negroes of the South, the mass of the people of the United States is much better educated than in Europe. This is especially the case in New England, New York, and the central States of the Northwest. But in either case the general fact is shown, beyond doubt or controversy, that ignorance is one great cause of crime, and that, in elevating the education of society, both religious and intellectual, we advance the interests of society by diminishing crime.

Just so far, therefore, as society neglects to educate the people, just so far does it prepare the crime which the criminal commits.

Let us now examine our statistics in detail, with regard to color, nativity, and religious education.

In regard to sections of the country, taking the State prisons and jails of New York and Pennsylvania (deducting the metropolitan police reports) as representatives of the Middle States, we have these results, viz:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Let us take now the prisons and jails of the central Northwest, which includes the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Here we have the statistics of thirty penitentiaries, work-houses, and jails, a suffi

cient number and variety to give a complete view of the subject in those States. The results are as follows, viz:

[blocks in formation]

Let us now take the States west of the Mississippi to the Pacific. Of these we have

the reports of four State-prisons in the States of Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and California. The results are

[blocks in formation]

Now, let us take the only States that we have of those formerly slave States, where the negro population prevails, viz, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina. In these States the results are

[blocks in formation]

The States of Georgia and Tennessee, having 1,124 prisoners, made no return of the state of education, and were otherwise defective. In the 2,400 returned, the following are the proportions of educated and uneducated, viz:

Totally ignorant..

Very deficient, fully.

60 per cent.

85 per cent.

« 前へ次へ »