[494]

Out of 100 children born living 8.41 were illegitimate (1887–1891),232 while the mortality in the first year of life rose to 28.8% of the illegitimate children, and only to 16.7% of the legitimate.233

The figures given above constitute a crushing accusation against present conditions. If we suppose that the number of persons born of illegitimate unions who have attained the age at which it is physically possible to commit a crime are 6% of the whole population (a figure which is certainly rather too low than too high), it follows that a natural son runs twice as much danger of becoming a criminal as he would if legitimate, and that this danger is even four times as great in the case of a natural daughter. The other data are striking, especially those which deal with girls. There were 54% who were orphans or half-orphans; 43% had criminal parents; 33% had parents who were vagabonds or prostitutes, or who had deserted their children!234

As the official statistics furnish no other data, we will pass on to some of those given by private individuals. In the work already more than once quoted, Raux gives the following table, based upon careful researches and dealing with 385 juvenile prisoners received in the “Quartier correctionnel” at Lyons, to which the juvenile delinquents guilty of grave crimes are sent:235

Only 13% among them enjoyed a normal education (and who could say how far it was really good?), while 87% had an education [495]insufficient or bad. The author arrives at the following conclusion: “… the population of the ‘quartier correctionnel’ of Lyons, more unfortunate than guilty, has been recruited for more than 16 years from families the majority of which bore within themselves, by reason of the vices of their constitution, the principle of disintegration; whose morality was detestable or very doubtful, and whose means of subsistence were insufficient or totally lacking.

“It is to these different causes that the young delinquents owe first their deplorable antecedents, then their recklessness at the moment of the crime, their perversity, their corruption, and finally, their arrest.”236

The opinion of M. Grosmolard, of great value because of the competence of the author, who has been attached to the penal institutions of Lyons, is entirely in accord with what has just been quoted. After having spoken of the strong influence of poverty upon juvenile criminality, Grosmolard continues thus: “Besides material poverty, and as an auxiliary to this factor, we find the moral poverty of the home, manifested by the disorganization of the family. Whether it is due to the misconduct of the father or of the mother, or of both, the disruption, whether private through separation of the couple, or officialized by divorce, has no less deplorable consequences for the children. There is always the depressing spectacle of domestic disputes, the abandonment of the home, the weakening of parental discipline.”237

Concerning 400 children in a parental school in Paris we have the following figures:238

These results agree, therefore, with those of the official statistics and of Raux. The normal families were those which did not present any of the external marks of demoralization, and it is more than probable that their “morality”, in many cases was only apparent. [496]

Out of 600 families from which juvenile criminals had issued, studied by Dr. L. Albanel, 303 (50.5%) had been disorganized by death, divorce, desertion, etc. In 268 (44.6%) families the fathers and mothers worked away from home and the children were entirely neglected; 291 children (48.5%) were confided to persons outside of the family; and 41 (6.8%) were brought up by their grandparents, etc.239

Finally, there is the following fact about the children undergoing correction in Paris during the period 1874–1878: nearly 68% of them received visits from no one at all, not even from their parents. What complete misery! Out of 100 children 68 in whom no one was interested, not even when they were in prison.240

The results obtained by correctional education (probably no more perfect in France than elsewhere) prove the correctness of what has been advanced. If the thesis that the environment is the cause of the criminality of minors is true, the conduct of most of those set free ought to be good. Here are the results obtained in the “Quartier correctionnel” of Lyons:241

As I have already remarked, the fact that all do not lead good lives proves nothing against the theory of environment, for it is quite possible that earlier evil influences have not been eliminated in a comparatively short detention. To prove how strong an influence the environment exercises anew upon discharged prisoners, let us look at the following figures, which also have to do with the pupils of the Lyons “Quartier correctionnel”:242 [497]

Ireland, 1891.

Among the children subjected to correctional education in 1891 there were: 1.2% of illegitimate birth; 8.1% who had lost their parents; 16.2% without father; 19.3% without mother; and 0.6% who had been abandoned or whose parents were unknown.243 43.6%, then, were entirely or partially orphaned. These figures have no great value since they relate to so small a number (160).

Italy, 1885–1889.

With regard to illegitimacy among criminals I have data for the years 1885, 1886, and 1889. In these years there were among those convicted at the assizes 2.35%, 2.25%, and 2.21% respectively, of illegitimate birth.244 The number of natural children in general in the years 1872–1889 was about 7%;245 the mortality among children in general in the first year was 19%, and that among the illegitimate children 26% (these percentages are the averages for the years 1884–1893).246 Italy is an exception, therefore to the rule, good everywhere else, that a larger proportion of criminals than of the general population are illegitimate.

In his “Entartete Mütter”, Ferriani says that more than 25% of the 806 juvenile criminals examined by him had become such because of the depravity of their families.247 In his “Minderjährige Verbrecher” he gives the following results from an examination of 2,000 juvenile criminals: 207 (10.3%) came from families of which one or more members had been convicted; 53 (2.6%) from families entirely demoralized; 701 (35.0%) from families of bad reputation; and 169 (8.4%) from families with a doubtful reputation—all together 56.3%; while 896 (44.8%) had been corrupted by bad examples.248 [498]

Dr. A. Marro gives the following figures:249 of 507 criminals examined by him there were:

Netherlands, 1896–1901.

The data concerning the Netherlands are limited to the following:250

In the period 1887–1891 the number of illegitimate children to 100 born living was 3.2251; the mortality among illegitimate children during their first year rose to 26.6% as against 17.5% among children in general (1885–1893).252 It is not possible to calculate for [499]the population in general the number of individuals born of illegitimate unions and arrived at the age at which they are capable of committing crime, but it is certain that the mortality is greater among illegitimate children at each age than among legitimate children, and that the number of children legitimated is very considerable. The percentage of illegitimates to the whole population, then, is much smaller than 3.2. It is consequently probable that in Holland also illegitimate children are more likely to become criminals than legitimate children.

As to juvenile criminals there are the following figures to be gathered from the criminal statistics for the years from 1899 to 1901:

New York (State), 1875–1897.

Dugdale gives the following figures in “The Jukes.” They deal with 233 criminals imprisoned in New York in 1875. 40.77% were orphans; 46.78% had been neglected in their youth; 17.16% were descended from criminal families, and 42.49% from intemperate families.253

The following very interesting figures are taken from the annual reports of the Elmira Reformatory. [500]

In round numbers then: 50% of the criminals come from a corrupt environment, and only 10% from a good environment; 40% had left home before the age of 15; and further, 40 to 45% had alcoholic parents.254

Norway, 1897–1900.255

The following figures deal with illegitimacy of birth among the prisoners in Norway.

[501]

During the years 1887–1891, out of 100 living births 7.33 were illegitimate,256 while the mortality of natural children in the first year was 15.3% and that of children in general 9.5%.257 Persons of illegitimate birth formed a much greater proportion of the prisoners than of the population in general.

In the years 1887–1891 there were 7.81 illegitimate children out of each 100 living births; 35.7% of the illegitimate children died in the first year as against 20.8% of children in general (1884–1893).259 In Prussia also, then, the influence of illegitimacy upon criminality is very marked.

The following table gives the figures for 18,049 recidivists in Prussian houses of detention in the years 1894–1897.260

[502]

Consequently 47.3% had lost one or both parents before reaching the age of 18; 11.2% were of illegitimate birth—a total, therefore, of 58.5% brought up under abnormal home surroundings. And what was the environment under which the other 41.5% had lived? The table gives no answer to this question, but we may imagine it on the basis of the figures given above.

Switzerland, 1892–1896.

Among the 14,612 persons confined in the Swiss prisons during the years 1892–1896 there were 1,359 of illegitimate birth—1,044 men (8.5%) and 315 women (13.9%).261 In the period 1871–1890 there were only 5 illegitimate births to the 100, while the mortality during the first year was 24.0 to the 100 natural children as against 16.4 to the 100 children in general.262 The influence of illegitimate birth upon criminality, therefore, is very great in Switzerland; an illegitimate child is at least three times as likely to become a criminal as a legitimate child.

As regards the education of criminals, 22% of the women and 17% of the men had been brought up by persons outside of the family. The following table bears upon the others, i.e. those who were brought up at home:263