384 



nEPORT— 1882. 



§ 12. Geography of Crime. 



If from a comparison of crimes and offences in the three kingdoms, 

 we pass to an examination of the criminality of the several counties 

 respectively, the field for study becomes wider and still more interesting. 

 We may trace a diagram of indictable crimes in England from Cornwall, 

 where there is the smallest number of committals, 0'21 per 1,000, to 

 Hereford, where there is the largest number, 97 per 1,000 ; in Scotland, 

 from (Drkney to Bute, 0'12 to 3'05 per 1,000 ; in Ireland, from Wexford 

 to Leitrim, 0"34 to 2' 72 per 1,000. Lawlessness and drunkenness, how- 

 ever, follow other lines. If we take the counties in geographical order, 

 the group of north midland and south-western counties have the least 

 amount of crime, the north-western group the highest. Of the three 

 Metropolitan counties, Middlesex and Dublin have a high degree of 

 criminality. Not so Ediuburgh. In lawlessness and drunkenness, how- 

 ever, Dublin and Edinburgh are much worse than Middlesex. Generally, 

 the agricultural counties have less crime than the manufacturing and 

 mineral counties. As a rule, crime follows closely the density of popula- 

 tion. Cornwall, with only thirty-seven persons to the square mile, has 

 less crime than Lancashire with 285 persons to the square mile. Great 

 centres of population always contain a large number of restless, ill-con- 

 ditioned men. They offer temptations, often irresistible, to wasteful 

 luxury. They engender disease and want, and with physical and moral 

 deterioration crime is nourished and fostered. 



§ 13. Bace and Crime. 



Much might be learnt also of the relation of ci'ime to races, if the 

 population of the different counties were properly classified as Celts, 

 Saxons, Scandinavian, &,c. The large proportion of crimes and offences 

 in places where the Irish are numerous indicates that nationality and race 

 have considerable influence upon the nature and number of crimes. The 

 Anthropometric Committee of the British Association have ascertained 

 that the people of the north and north-eastern counties are taller and 

 heavier than the people in the south and south-western counties, and 

 the geogi'aphy of crime shows precisely the opposite course. Putting the 

 one against the other, we find that the taller the people the less is the crime, 

 the shorter the people the more the crime. Nor is it a matter of surprise, 

 for where the people are taller and better grown, the result of favourable 

 conditions with respect to fresh air, exercise, and wholesome and suffi- 

 cient food, there the amount of ci-ime should be lower than wherever the 

 people are small and stunted. 



The nationality of prisoners during the last twenty-five years in Eng- 

 land and Wales has been as follows : — 



Per cent, of the whole number. 



