45Q 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Statement showing sentences in the State of Massachusetts for all classes of offenses, for 

 drunkenness, including common drunkards, for crimes other than drunkenness and 

 liquor offenses, and for high crimes, from 1860 to 1879 inclusive, ivith the annual per 

 cent of decrease or increase since 1860. 



* Estimated. 



facts, however, relieves the Commonwealth of the oft-repeated 

 statement that crime is increasing much faster than population. 

 The total number of sentences for all offenses for the twenty years 

 is 578,348. An examination of the column of the foregoing table 

 headed " Drunkenness, including common drunkards," shows that 

 the percentage of increase since 1860 is 155*9 per cent, the total 

 tal being 340,814; that is to say, 60 per cent of the total number 

 of crimes reported under all classes of offenses belong entirely 

 to what may be called " rum offenses." An examination of the 

 statistics of crimes other than drunkenness and liquor offenses 

 shows that the increase for the twenty years from 1860 to 1879, in- 

 clusive, was but 20*1 per cent, as against an increase of 50'4 per 

 cent in the population. But the truest comparison is based on 

 what are called " high crimes." These are the crimes which rep- 

 resent criminal conditions more than any other. They are the 

 crimes of abortion, felonious assault, burglary, breaking and enter- 

 ing, burning a building, embezzlement, forgery, incest, murder, 

 manslaughter, robbery, and rape. The total number of sentences 

 under all these high crimes for the twenty years is shown in the 

 foregoing table, with percentage of increase since 1860 brought 

 into comparison with the increase of population. This increase in 

 1879 was 39*6 percent over 1860, while the population for the same 

 time had increased 50*4 per cent. This side of the table shows that 

 any argument made to prove that the crime of the State of Massa- 

 chusetts for the twenty years named increased much more rapidly 



