THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. 7 



and each of which must have a marked influence on sporadic cases of 

 crime, and especially upon the creation of the criminal habit. But, 

 much as these modifying circumstances have to do with the question 

 before us, yet returns involving these particulars are so imperfect that 

 we are able to get but a hint of the extent to which each acts. 



(1.) Occupation, as it places woman above temptation to the minor 

 degrees of crime, or as it brings her more closely in contact with con- 

 stantly-recurring temptations, becomes an important factor. It is evi- 

 dent that these conditions must exist iu the lives of both sexes, and 

 have their influence on the frequency of crime and the nature of the 

 ofiense. Thus in an official return ' quoted by Quetelet, in which the 

 offenders are classified by occupation, the accused of the eighth class 

 who all exercised liberal professions, or enjoyed a fortune, are those 

 who have committed the greatest number of crimes against persons ; 

 while eighty-seven hundredths of the accused of the ninth class, com- 

 posed of people without character, as beggars and prostitutes, have 

 attacked scarcely any thing but property. When the accused arc- 

 divided into two classes, one of the liberal professions, and the other 

 composed of joui'neymen, laborers, and servants, this difference is ren- 

 dered still more conspicuous." This is sufficient to render the broad 

 inference probable that want or necessity induces but the minor 

 degrees of crime against property, w^hile the more serious phases of 

 crime belong to the opposite conditions of society, or have their main- 

 spring in other motives. In the Compte General de F Administration 

 de la Justice, the occupation of the accused is given by sex, and under 

 the article Domestiques we find one hundred and forty-nine men and 

 one hundred and seventy-five women employed as personal servants, 

 nearly all of whom were accused of the minor degrees of crimes against 

 property. These proportions for this occupation hold about the same 

 relations from year to year. As persons so engaged are maintained 

 generally by their employers, want could not have existed as a mo- 

 tive for these offenses. Cupidity, or the desire to appear well, with 

 the facility of its gratification, afforded by occupation, is the probable 

 motive, and, making allowance for the slight excess of women so em- 

 ployed, exists in almost equal intensity in both sexes. 



From what we know of the inadequate pay attending many of the 

 employments in which women are engaged, it is safe to say that irre- 

 sistible temptation is often the result. In the larger cities there are 

 thousands of women, reaching from youth to advanced life, who are 

 but just able to provide themselves with the necessities of life by 

 labor extending over more than half of the hours in the day. Many 

 of these have others dependent upon them, which must add very much 

 to the tendency to the minor forms of crime. But the tendency to 

 crime arising from inadequate pay is twofold. It may not be sufficient 

 to meet necessary bodily wants, or barely sufficient, or, as is too gen- 

 " R.ipport au Roi," 1829. Loc. cit., p. 85. 



