THE RELATION'S OF WOMEN TO CRIME. g 



and the presence of those ties of kinship which act so powerfully as 

 restraints. Aside from these conditions I know of no facts which 

 show that an even proportion in numbers of the sexes has a mutually 

 conservative effect upon morals. 



Generally, those in whom there is no inherited criminal taint, or 

 no development of the criminal habit, would not seek nor create an 

 opportunity for offense. But this can hold true only as to crimes 

 against property, for in the other class of offenses, revenge, jealousy, 

 avarice, and other emotions, may act suddenly as the exciting cause. 



It is evident that woman's opportunities for crime are restricted 

 by her relations to society, except, as we have already seen, certain 

 facilities are afforded by her occupation. The moral influence of 

 woman upon society is powerful ; but it is negative rather than posi- 

 tive. Woman wields a sort of moral inhibitory power. Except as 

 she may directly incite the other sex to crime, relationship to woman 

 restrains and tones down the more salient points of the male charac- 

 ter. Her lessened opportunity for crime results naturally from her 

 sexual relations. Oppoi'tunity springs from the free mingling of large 

 numbers in the heat and action of life. It is the antagonism between 

 interests and objects, the friction, as it were, between the rapidly-mov- 

 ing actors, which brings out the intensity of emotion which I'esults in 

 the open or secret warfare of society. The vast majority of women 

 are, to a certain extent, removed by the restraints not by any means 

 artificial, but those which naturally result from their sexual relations, 

 from the opportunity for crime. But I would limit even those re- 

 straints to crimes against property, rather than against persons. 

 Although the ratio is sixteen and thirty -two to one hundred for 

 each of these classes resj^ectively, yet I believe it can be shown that 

 the diminished ratio for crimes against persons depends upon other 

 and more specific causes than her sexual attitude to society. Domes- 

 ticity in this relation shows its potency as a conservator of morals ; 

 but, standing alone and unaided by mutual dependence and interest, 

 its power is limited to placing each subject beyond the more closely- 

 besetting opportunities to which men are exposed. It is but neces- 

 sary to call attention to the fact that it is from among female domes- 

 tics and operatives that the ranks of prostitution are recruited, in 

 order to show that domesticity, which is the condition of seven- 

 eighths of the female population, must be accompanied by other 

 relations in order to act as a more or less complete restraint to 

 crime. I use the word here in its broadest possible sense, as defining 

 the position of the majority of the sex. Great as the influence of the 

 domestic relation is, it is limited by the fact that it is not permanent. 

 It is constantly exposed to those accidents to which all human i-ela- 

 tions are liable. The passions and discordant interests find in this 

 relation a field for their utmost activity. The sexual relation, which 

 is founded in the passions common to us all, finds in them the ele- 



