These figures show that the education of a very great number of criminals was very insufficient, and especially so in the case of illegitimate children.

The following table, dealing with the canton of Berne, gives still further details.264 [503]

The figures concerning the bad education of illegitimate persons are very striking, as well as those brought up in families other than their own; of the latter only 9% had received a good education even as that term is used in the table.

Wurtemberg, 1877–1888.

The following figures have to do with 3,181 criminals in prison in Wurtemberg during the years mentioned:

Out of 100 in each group there were the following number of illegitimate births:

Between 1876 and 1885 there were 8.76% of illegitimate births in the general population; and while the general mortality of children in their first year was 26.1% (1884–1893) that of illegitimate children was 32%.265 The influence of illegitimacy is very strong here, therefore.

To 100 persons of each category the following were brought up outside of their own family: [504]

To 100 persons of each category there were the following one or both of whose parents had led an immoral or criminal life:

Finally it must be mentioned that 16.2% of 1,714 in the detention prison had alcoholic parents.

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We are now at the end of our statistical data and also of our observations upon the environment in which criminals are brought up; for it seems to me superfluous to make further comments: the great influence of environment is indubitable.

Tomel and Rollet close their work “Enfants en prison” with these words, which I make my own, and which are as applicable to adult as to juvenile criminals: “Has society done everything that it ought to spare children the prison? We believe that with ourselves [the reader] will answer, ‘No!’ Each child to whom we refuse protection will become a delinquent. It is a wolf that we are preparing for the sheep-fold. If tomorrow he makes his fellows pay his own arrears of injustice, if he steals, if he kills, he will not say, ‘I commit a crime’; he will say, ‘I make reprisals.’ ”266

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f. Prostitution. Prostitution has a special importance for the etiology of sexual offenses and of procuration. However, it is not with this that we are concerned at present, but with the correlation between prostitution and criminality in general, in the sense, that is, that prostitution has a demoralizing effect upon the women who practice it and upon the men who have intercourse with them. [505]

Let us begin with the effect upon the prostitutes themselves. And as with all observations upon the relation between certain social phenomena and criminality, these must be preceded by statistical data.

How large a quota do prostitutes contribute to crime? This is a hard question to answer, because, first, most criminal statistics make no mention of the occupation of prostitute; second, when the statistics do mention prostitution they do not give the real truth, since the facts will often be concealed by the woman interested; third, the extent of prostitution is almost unknown, so that it is impossible to make the necessary calculations.

The following figures give us some information on the subject.

Austria, 1896–1898.

It is to the study of Dr. A. Baumgarten “Die Beziehungen der Prostitution zum Verbrechen”, that I owe the following figures (which, I believe, bear wholly upon Vienna). In the years 1896–98 there were 34 annually convicted out of a total of 2,400 prostitutes, or 1.4%, not counting those who were punished for infraction of the regulations covering prostitution.267 The author thinks this degree of criminality very small. I venture to be of a different opinion. If we note that criminal statistics, those of Germany, for example, show that there are annually only 0.3 women over 12 years of age convicted to the 100, we shall see that the part that prostitutes take in crime must be called more than a small one.

England, 1836–1900.

The English penitentiary statistics show whether the female prisoners are prostitutes or not. As we have seen above (p. 499) the percentage of prostitutes rose in the period between 1894–1900 to 15% of the total. The figures bearing upon earlier years, however, show a much higher percentage; in the years 1836–1854 25.2% of the women convicted (in London) were prostitutes268; in the years 1858–1862 prostitutes made up 24.7% of the women arrested.269

However, when we examine these exceptionally high figures, we must not forget that, according to the “Vagrant Act”, the fact of being a prostitute itself is a misdemeanor; a part of these women, [506]therefore, were convicted for this and not for having committed some other offense. The following figure however, where this circumstance is excluded, also shows a great criminality upon the part of prostitutes, and gains added weight from the fact that many persons would not care to make complaint for fear of scandal: to each 100 persons of both sexes convicted in London between 1843 and 1854 of “theft from the person”, there were 36.0 prostitutes.270

France, 1890–1895.

In citing the figures upon the occupations of the prisoners (1890–1895) we showed (p. 501) that about 5% were prostitutes. Compared with that given in the corresponding statistics for England this percentage is small. It must, however, be taken into consideration that a great number of occasional prostitutes figure in the penitentiary statistics under the head of another occupation.

Germany, 1885.

For this country I have been able to find only the following. Among the 2,900 women imprisoned in the 16 great German prisons there were found in 1885 500 (17.2%) who had already been punished for professional prostitution.271 Although there are no positive data upon the extent of prostitution, it is nevertheless certain that much less than 17.2% of women in general are prostitutes. The figure cited shows that prostitutes take a relatively large part in crime.

Italy, 1891–1895.

1,949 (1.5%) out of 126,717 women convicted in the years 1891–1895 were prostitutes.272 Here also it must be taken into account that this number is made up only of prostitutes by occupation, and that those who follow it as an auxiliary calling are grouped under other occupations. Also, L. Ferriani, in his “Minderjährige Verbrecher”, concludes that of the 460 young female criminals studied by him, 243 (52.8%) were prostitutes.273

What data I have been able to secure do not prove—but render [507]exceedingly probable—the assertion that prostitutes show a high degree of criminality. In my opinion this phenomenon is to be explained as follows.

First. From its nature the profession opens a vast field for committing economic offenses.

Second. Prostitution has a very demoralizing effect upon those that practice it. Those who have not sufficiently taken account of the real causes of prostitution consider this a confusing of cause and effect, and believe that it is the demoralization which causes prostitution. In reasoning thus they forget that part of the prostitutes are forced by poverty to take up this profession, and that in such cases there is no need of supposing demoralization. Whatever may be the case with regard to the rest, the profession would increase the demoralization already existing.

All the authors who have taken up the question are agreed that this is really the case. It is impossible to imagine a more degrading situation than that of a prostitute. A woman who is continually forced to act in opposition to her feelings, who is obliged to enter into intimate relations with the first comer however abject he may be, who has become unaccustomed to all work, and who is despised, inevitably loses all respect for herself and falls lower and lower.274

A second bond of connection between criminality and prostitution is that it makes possible a category of persons who constitute a permanent danger to society, namely the “protectors.” The unregistered prostitutes need a man who will look after them, and to whom they may attach themselves in their forlorn condition. In exchange for this protection the prostitute gives up a large part of her earnings. In examining the biographies of great criminals we see that a large number of them have belonged to this category. It is evident that only demoralized persons can lead such a life, but that this life in its turn increases their demoralization.275 [508]

In the third place, prostitution has a demoralizing effect upon the men who come into contact with the prostitutes. We cannot lay it to chance that it is shown in many criminal procedures that guilty persons have had relations with the world of prostitution. This world includes only a relatively small number of persons; but the men who frequent it are numerous, and the demoralization which ensues is prejudicial to society. This demoralization is easily explained, as Dr. Lux shows in his “Sozialpolitisches Handbuch”, in these words: “The venality of the delights of love debases the pleasure; the man learns to see in woman only a means of satisfying his lust; all higher regard for woman is lost to him, his thoughts become frivolous and cynical, his character continually more vulgar. Whoever has an opportunity to come to know the young men of the large cities, must, unless he is already tainted with their opinions himself, be shocked at the brutality and coarseness of their thought and speech. The whole conversational material of our gilded youth consists of filth and obscenities; they boast of things that a decent man would blush to be charged with. The young man is demoralized and depraved by association with prostitutes, of whose standard of morality he must beware lest he stifle in it every nobler feeling.”276

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g. Alcoholism. Here we have to take up but a single one of the ways in which alcoholism is connected with criminality. For while acute alcohol-poisoning enters into the etiology of sexual offenses and those committed in revenge, etc., it has almost no relation to the largest of the classes, namely economic crimes. Acute alcoholism, therefore, has no place among our general observations. With chronic alcoholism it is otherwise; for the man who is subject to this undergoes a general demoralization by which he is predisposed to crime even when he is not drunk. The manner in which this demoralization takes place is not a question within the province of [509]sociology; it is sufficient for us that this consequence of chronic alcoholism is universally recognized.277

To show the influence of chronic alcoholism upon criminality we can use only the direct statistical method; that is to say, we must find the number of chronic alcoholics among criminals, and then place beside this the number among the non-criminal population, in order that we may compare them. If the latter figures are lacking, a comparison is impossible. However, as we shall see, the percentage of chronic alcoholics is so great among the criminals, that we can affirm that among the non-criminals the percentage is very small. Consequently the influence of chronic alcoholism, whether greater or less, is indubitably proved. Here are the statistics which we have at our disposal.

Belgium, 1874–1900.

M. Masoin tells us that out of 2,588 convicts (sentenced for 5 years at least) who entered the central institution at Louvain between 1874 and 1895, there were 1,157 (44.7%) addicted to drunkenness. Out of 216 sentenced to hard labor for life there were 118 (54.6%), and out of 202 sentenced to death 121 (60%).278

In the prison of Mons Dr. Morel shows that out of 325 recidivists 181 (53.9%) were given to alcoholic excesses.279

It appears from the “Statistique Judiciaire de la Belgique” of 1900, that in 1898, out of 19,169 recidivists (men) there were 5,976 (31.2%) who had already been convicted of breaking the law against drunkenness, and out of 22,904 non-recidivists (men) 1,984 (8.7%). Among the women the figures were 8% (recidivists) and 1.1% (non-recidivists).280

Denmark, 1871–1897.

Out of 2,982 prisoners received between 1871 and 1880 in the prison at Vridslöselille, 797 (27%) were drunkards. The penitentiary statistics show us that during the years 1891–1897, among the non-recidivists 16.3% of the men were drunkards, and 4.6% of the women.281 [510]

England and Wales, 1858–1897.

The following figures are taken from the police statistics282:

These figures have no great value; they represent the number of habitual drinkers to be less than it really is. The statistics cited divide all persons prosecuted into eight groups (habitual criminals, prostitutes, vagrants, etc.) and under the heading of habitual drinkers only those alcoholics figure who are not included under other headings. If a vagrant, for example, is also a habitual drinker, he will be counted among the vagrants and not among the habitual drinkers; hence this latter group is much larger than the figures would indicate.284

France.

At the penitentiary Congress in Brussels (1900), M. V. Marambat, well known for his studies on the relation between criminality and alcoholism, gave the following figures:285 [511]

At the same congress Dr. Malgat reported the following results of an investigation made by him in the prison at Nice:286

Germany.

An inquiry made by Dr. A. Baer with regard to the inmates of the German prisons, in the period after 1870, gives the following results:287

[512]

For the different crimes and misdemeanors the figures are as follows:288

Out of a total of 359 vagabonds and mendicants Dr. Bonhoeffer found 281 (78.2 %) alcoholics.289 [513]

Italy.

Out of a total of 507 criminals examined by him Dr. Marro found 379 (74.7%) addicted to excess in alcohol, and only eight (1.5%) abstainers or “unknown.”290

Netherlands, 1900–1901.

It was only in 1900 that the criminal statistics mentioned for the first time the number of habitual drunkards among the convicts. Here are the results:

Among the recidivists the drunkards formed 11.6%.

The data for 1901 are more detailed and also more worthy of confidence.

[514]

Of the recidivists 21.96% were habitual drunkards.291

New York (State), 1869–1870.

In his “Dangerous Classes of New York”, C. L. Brace states that in 1870, out of 49,423 criminals in the prisons of New York City there were 30,507 (61.6%) habitual drunkards, and 893 (81.6%) of the 1,093 prisoners in the Albany penitentiary in the years 1869–70 likewise were drunkards.292

R. L. Dugdale gives the following figures for the 233 criminals examined by him:293