190 



2. Observations on the Amount, Increase, and Distribution 

 of Crime in Scotland. By George Makgill, Esq. of Kem- 

 back. 



The author read some " Observations on the Amount, Increase, 

 and Distribution of Crime in Scotland," being the results of an ana- 

 lysis of the Official Tables of criminal offenders for the ten years 

 ending 1850, and of the Prison Board Beturns, compared with va- 

 rious statistical data. 



The criminal tables of Scotland confirm, in many important 

 particulars, the observations of M. Guerry, M. Quetelet, and Mr 

 Joseph Fletcher, as to the causes of the occasional fluctuations in the 

 amount of crime, the chief of which appear to be — 1st, Scarcity of 

 the chief articles of subsistence; 2d, Disturbances of commercial 

 credit, and of the labour market ; Sd, Political excitement. 



Among the other results of the author's inquiry are the follow- 

 ing:— 



1. The ratio of crime to population is apparently one-tenth higher 

 in England than in Scotland ; but, — 



2. In England this ratio has for many years been gradually di- 

 minishing, while in Scotland it is rapidly and steadily increasing. 



3. This increase shews itself chiefly in crimes accompanied by 

 violence, which in Scotland constitute 40 per cent, of the total of- 

 fences recorded, while in England they are only 14 per cent. 



4. This excess and increase are chiefly remarkable in the agri- 

 cultural, pastoral, and thinly-peopled districts of the Border, where 

 aggravated crimes against the person are greatly more common in 

 proportion to population, than in the densely- crowded manufacturing 

 counties of the west. In Berwick and Roxburgh, crime of all kinds 

 has increased more rapidly in the last ten years, than in any other 

 part of the country ; while in Lanarkshire the augmentation has 

 been trifling, and in Renfrew the number has actually diminished. 

 An analogous fact has been observed in regard to England. 



6. Looking, however, not to the ratio of increase, but to the ab- 

 solute amount of crime in proportion to population, the highest 

 counties are still those in which mining industry is found in conjunc- 

 tion with factory labour, with the exception of Ayr and Fifeshire. 



6. There does not appear to be any marked coincidence between 

 the excess of crime and that of pauperism. 



