72 THE JUKES. 



different officers, so that they are not gathered into one central office, 

 and the responsibility for neglecting to make returns is in some 

 cases dubious. Aside from these statutory defects, there are other 

 causes which greatly add to the faultiness of criminal statistics, and 

 may be divided into four general categories : First, the inefficiency 

 of the police ; second, the defects in the administration of justice \ 

 third, the falsification and defectiveness of the records ; and, fourth, 

 public apathy. 



Under the first we have : First, the undetected, who commit 

 crimes and evade punishment by covering their iniquities from 

 public knowledge. Among this class may be found defaulters, 

 guardians who appropriate trust funds, abortionists, various pan- 

 derers to vices and receivers of stolen goods, who are protected 

 by the craft because they are crime capitalists. Second, the unar- 

 rested who are represented by those who either have evaded or 

 made terms with the police, or who live in the rural districts where 

 practically no police exists ; also, such depredators as private indi- 

 viduals decline to appear against, either from indifference, from in 

 timidation, or by compounding their felonies. 



Coming under the category of defects in the administration of 

 justice we have : First, the unprosecuted, a very large band who get 

 off either by nolle prosequi or by giving straw bail. Second, the un- 

 justly acquitted by sympathizing juries or other means. Third, the 

 acceptance of pleas of guilty of a minor offense when a major one 

 has been committed. Fourth, the convictions for constructive 

 crime, by giving the evidence against a prisoner an interpretation 

 which allows prosecution for a greater offense than that actually 

 committed, as where robbery from a woman is construed into 

 attempt at rape. Fifth, the immunity of those who turn State's evi- 

 dence against their confederates. In these ways we fail to get at 

 the actual quality of the crime for in a vast number of convictions 

 there has been no trial we only get the name of certain offenses 

 which do not have even the merit of being accurately defined. 



As to the defectiveness and falsification of records, these are 

 very numerous : First, The neglect of country justices to transmit 

 duplicate copies of commitments and finable cases to county clerks, 



