INFLUENCE OF THE WEATHER UPON CRIME. 653 

 INFLUEls'CE OF THE WEATHER UPON CRIME. 



By EDWIN G. DEXTER. 



THE relation between general climatic conditions and the preva- 

 lence of suicide has been somewhat exhaustively studied by stu- 

 dents of criminology, the result being a considerable accumulation of 

 data and the formulation of a number of more or less tenable the- 

 ories. From these studies we may safely conclude that the homi- 

 cidal tendency, as shown by self-destruction (suicide) and the destruc- 

 tion of others (murder), is stronger in the temperate climatic zones 

 than in the torrid or frigid, and that in the late spring and early 

 summer months more of these offenses have been recorded than for 

 any other period of the year. To these few facts the seeming effects 

 of cosmical forces upon such tendencies has apparently been 

 limited. 



It fact, it w^as the oft-repeated statement that nothing was known 

 of the exact relations of the more definite meteorological con- 

 ditions with the prevalence of suicide- — a statement to be found 

 in most treatises upon the subject — that has given rise to this paper. 

 Realizing that the science of climatology must include, and in fact 

 be based upon, a study of the meteorological conditions prevalent, 

 and that the study of these definite conditions for the exact times 

 when suicides or murders occurred might throw some light upon the 

 question, this problem was undertaken. 



In the preparation of the accompanying charts, from the study 

 of which the conclusions herein stated were deduced, the record of 

 crime for Denver, Colorado, for the fourteen years ending with 

 June, 1897, was made use of. Superintendent Howe, chief of the 

 city detective service, has kept such a record with the greatest care, 

 and we wish here to acknowledge the many courtesies of his office. 



No attempt has been made in this paper to compare the condi- 

 tions for Denver, either meteorological or social — and each is some- 

 what unique — with such conditions elsewhere. In fact, such a com- 

 parative study is at present impossible since data are wanting. 



In the actual preparation of the charts each murder, suicide, or 

 attempt at suicide — which, for our purpose, is equally important — 

 was set dow-n chronologically in the left-hand columns of large 

 sheets of paper ruled for the purpose. These sheets were then 

 taken to the ofiice of the United States Weather Bureau, F. H. Bran- 

 denburg, director, where were recorded in the proper columns the 

 maximum and minimum barometer readings, maximum and mini- 

 mum temperature, maximum and minimum humidity, maximum 

 velocity of the wind, precipitation, and character of the day for 



