THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. 337 



physical equality is not involved. It becomes a question of secrecy, 

 cunning, and shrewdness. These are mental qualities which exist 

 with equal force in the sexes. Consequently in this division of crime 

 for all ages we find a mean proportion of 1 to 2. Expressed in detail 

 the proportion is equal in childhood, 1 to 2 at the next period, and 1 

 to 3 for the three following, until, at the decade between forty and 

 fifty years, it drops to 1 to 2, and is equal again for the two following 

 periods. The influences which cause equality in the proportions at 

 the two extremes of ages are probably those which produce the same, 

 or nearly the same, results in relation to the other orders of crime. 



Tills analysis of Mr. Nelson's statistics reveals to us a very inter- 

 esting period in the lives of both sexes that between forty and fifty 

 years. For all the classes of crime examined, we find the sexes at 

 this period proportionally approaching equality ; being in two classes 

 actually at that of childhood. These two classes of crime are those 

 which involve the greatest violence, crimes against persons; and the 

 least, crimes against the currency. For the first, I have already 

 oifered a reasonable explanation, that of the period of caution ; but, in 

 reference to the latter, we must search further, in order to get at a 

 probable cause. In the last-named offense, we have as a character- 

 izing mental trait the very condition which explains the decrease in 

 the proportion for crimes against persons, and yet at the terminal 

 periods of life we find it obeying the same law. There is one fact 

 which forces itself upon the attention in connection with this ; that 

 the first approach to equality in the proportions of the sexes begins 

 suddenly at the term of life between forty and fifty years. This 

 period, for men especially, is that in which the forces engaged in 

 structural repair and waste are in equilibrium. It is one of structural 

 rest, but of functional activity. At no other period in the life of man, 

 therefore, is he physically more competent to meet the demands of his 

 mental life. With women, it is also a period of structural rest, linked 

 to a state of functional completion, so far as the prime motive of 

 sexual life is concerned. It appears reasonable, in view of this, that 

 physical factors be excluded as a probable cause of the phenomenon. 

 But there exist valid reasons for exempting the male sex partly 

 from the operation of the laws affecting this equalization in the pro- 

 portion of the sexes. These reasons show presumptively that the 

 subtile and obscure laws of crime operate more actively upon the female 

 than the male sex ; that, in obedience to these laws, her relations to 

 crime are prolonged into periods of life when men are becoming, to a 

 certain extent, exempt from their operations. 



My friend Mr. R. L. Dugdale, of New York, in his brilliant study 

 of the natural history of crime,* by an analysis of Tables I. and II. of 

 Mr. Nelson,^ arrives at important facts. In the tables referred to, 



" Thirtieth Annual Report of the Prison Association, State of New York," p. 1T9. 



a Loc. ciL, pp. 303, 304. 

 VOL. Tin. 22 



