Education and crime.

  • United States. Bureau of Education
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Education and crime. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    4 it will be fouiul that the cause is not in her schools, hut exists iu spite of her schools; for iu Prussia, as iu all other countries, an illiterate man is many times more likely to commit crime than one who is educated. If, therefore, the average Germau is more likely to commit crime thau the average Frcuchraau, it is because there is a crime- produciug factor in his nature or in the circumstances that sxu’rouud him Avhich his education has not been able to eliminate. It is probably true, as stated by Spencer and Buckle, that iu a iiarticular country crime is about uniform from year to year—that is, a certain percentage of the popula- tion became criminals last year, about the same percentage will become criminals this year and the next, and this uniformity may cover a period of many years. But if the question wore examined closely it would be found that iu the same country the amount of ignorance is about as uniform from year to year as the amount of crime; and, there- fore, no fair-minded person would expect crime to decrease. But suppose a nation could bo named whoso percentage of criminals has remained nnitorm for the last fifty or a hundred years, and suppose that in such nation during the same period education has become more general, does it follow necessarily that education has no effect as a preventive of crime ? Is not crime more aj)t to be detected and punished as a nation advances in civilization? Are there not many acts considered as crimes in a highly advanced condition of society that are looked upon with less severity in its earlier, illiterate stages? As population grows more dense, as the struggle for life becomes more intense, as the gates of remunerative employment are closed against famishing thousands, as temptations multiply, is it not reasonable to expect crime to increase ? Were it not for the restraining effect of intellectual, moral, and religious influences, our oiAinion is that it would completely disrui)t soeiety and resolve its broken frag- ments into chaos. The iihilosophers we have named may reason well in many things; iu this their inferences are certainly not justified by the facts. This discussion has prepared us to take notice of an attack which has recently been made upon our public schools, based on the statistics of education and crime contained in the reports of the census for 1860. These statistics, it is alleged, show that iu cer- .taiu States where education is most general crime is very much more prevalent than in certain other States where a large proportion of the people cannot road and write. They are quoted as proving that the moral condition of the New England States, in particular, with their more than two centuries of free schools, is decidedly worse than the moral condition of the States of the South, where until recently free schools Avere almost unknoAATi. This is the weapon used against the public schools by Mr. Z. Mont- gomery in California, Mr. Richard Grant White in New York, and by others in various I)laccs throughout the country. It is perhaiis a sufficiont answer to give to these critics to say that the census of 1860 is not considered reliable as regards the statistics of crime and pauperism, that the reports are acknoAvledgod to bo full of errors by those Avho compiled them; but even if otherwise, oven if there AA'ero at the time the census of 1860 Avas taken more convicts iu the ]irisons of Massachusetts in proportion to iioxnilation Than iu those of Virginia, more in those of Connecticut and Pennsylvania than iu those of South Carolina and Georgia, it does not follow that education does not tend to xiroA'ent crime or that an eftective public school system is not a boon to society. Other circumstances calculated to aifect crime and the criminal statistics of the tAvo sections, must bo considered before the question can be settled. Without doubt, iu the years that arc gone, the machinery for the detection and punishment of crime Avas more ellective in the North thau in the Soutli. Certain offences recognized as crimes by the codes of the former section Avero not so recognized by those of the latter, and imprisonment for offences Avas compar.a- tivoly more common. The ))opulatio]i of the Soutli Avas mainly agricultural and thinly scattered over a largo extent of territory, Avhile that of the North, os])ecially in the Noav England States, Avas crowded into manufacturing toAvns and villages, and Hubjcct to all the temptations such pl.aces afibrd. 'I'lie South Avas almo.st Avludly’free from the inllucnce of the foreign edement, whieb at (ho North not only furnished a largo proportion of convicts for the prisons, but did much to demoralize those born on the
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