THE PROBLEM OF VICE AND CRIME jgc 



sound is morally rotten ; for we find that murder, 

 rape, and arson — crimes which arouse our abhor- 

 rence and indignation the most, for which the 

 law awards the most severe penalties, and which 

 all men in all nations are agreed to look upon as 

 unpardonable — are perpetrated by a class of men 

 whose probable capacity for self-government is 

 twice and a half less than that of criminals who 

 prey upon property, and whose probable mental 

 unsoundness is thirty-four times greater than that 

 of the average community." ^ 



About forty-three per cent, of the criminals 

 examined were of intemperate family, as were 

 fifty-one per cent, of the House of Refuge boys. 

 We find that 79.41 per cent, never learned a 

 trade, and presumptively were in the condition 

 of those for whom Satan finds mischief. 



Failure to learn a trade is chargeable usually 

 to the parents, and doubtless the indifference to, 

 or aversion for, sustained industry indicated by 

 that failure was a part of their legacy to their 

 children. A terrible fact is the large number of 

 House of Refuge boys found in the prisons, — 

 nearly twenty-three per cent, of all the convicts 

 examined. Of that number ninety-eight per cent. 



1 The Jukes, Dugdale, revised edition, p. 87. 



