386 HUMAN BIOLOGY 



crime, but also in other American cities, some of which 

 show greater proportionate figures. The average of 28 

 American cities for a number of years showed about 9 homi- 

 cides per 100,000 inhabitants, while in England there were 

 only 0.7. Prentiss calculates that 12,500 persons were 

 murdered in 1926; he estimates that there are 2,000,000 

 criminals in this country; he states that the pohce and other 

 law enforcing bodies employ 400,000 persons. 



Our daily reading makes it rather banal, perhaps, to offer 

 the observation that the amount of space given to crime 

 in the newspapers proves the extent of crime. Parenthetically 

 one might speak of the definite advertisement of crime and 

 the fact that it has no mean value for newsgatherers. 



NATIONAL COMPARISONS 



The well-known fact that in several European countries the 

 crime problem is vastly less in proportion than with us in 

 America requires for its explanation much more than is 

 usually offered. Those who propose remedies for our crime 

 troubles usually cite some one possible cause, in line with 

 their own interests or views, as explanatory of the better 

 conditions in several of the older countries. But the fact is 

 that everywhere the social background involves complexities 

 that have to be taken into account when considering the 

 incidence of any social problem or the results of dealing with 

 it. For example, legalists are prone to attribute the relative 

 lesser amount of crime in England to the swiftness with 

 which offenders are brought to trial and disposed of. While 

 we have no doubt that this is one factor, certain other 

 immensely important considerations are forgotten in any 

 such reasoning. The total situation is entirely different 

 from ours because of such conditions, among many variations 

 from our national circumstances, as the following: Vastly 

 greater homogeneity of population; politics playing no part 

 in most appointments, whether of judges or other ofTicials 

 dealing with offenders, the police and indeed whole city 

 administrations being free from politics; the national 

 government representing an integrated regime so that laws 

 concerning crime are the same for the entire country and 



