LAST CENSUS AND ITS BEARING ON CRIME 399 



Moreover, a large number of offenders are now sent to the juvenile 

 reformatories who were heretofore included in the jail and peni- 

 tentiary population, the number in 1890 being 14,846, while in 1904 

 they had grown to 32,034, an increase of 55 per cent. 



These both represent decided movements in advance in the pen- 

 ological systems of the land, approaching more nearly a rational proc- 

 ess in the line of treatment and certainly more in accord with the 

 best thought in tentative methods. At least it has this advantage 

 over the old process in that it may cure while the latter is sure to 

 solidify irrevocably into criminal characterization. 



A curious study in the variation of the criminal psychological 

 wave that sweeps over the land, is afforded in tracing the rise and fall 

 of the various grades of offences throughout the different geographical 

 divisions of the United States. A wide divergence in the ratio of the 

 same offences is thus presented with apparently slight differentiation 

 in the social, climatic or economic conditions as manifestly operating 

 causes. 



Commencing with grand larceny, which may be considered as a 

 representative type of crime as standing for attack upon property, 

 and we have a wide divergence in the criminal barometer. That form 

 of offence constitutes about 16.8 per cent, of the general bulk of 

 offences in the United States. It finds its lowest manifestation at 

 12.4 per cent, in the North Atlantic Division, reaching its highest 

 point at 27.1 per cent, in the South Central, and its medium at 15.9 

 per cent, in the extreme Western Division. In the report of ten 

 years previous it found its maximum in the Western at 61.7 per cent., 

 and its minimum (as at present) in the North Atlantic Division at 24 

 per cent. 



Assault, which may stand for the primitive (atavistic) form of 

 crime in attack upon the person, and we have the lowest in the North 

 Atlantic (5.5 per cent.), and its highest in the South Atlantic at 14.9 

 per cent. Burglary seems to be the least frequent in the North At- 

 lantic (3.0 per cent.) and most rife in the South Central, where it 

 reaches 11 per cent. 



Eobbery, the more aggressive form of mixed offenses, contrary to 

 general acceptation, is least rife in the Western Division (1.2 per 

 cent.), and most prevalent in the South Central (18 per cent.), other- 

 wise maintaining a remarkable uniformity throughout the other geo- 

 graphical divisions. In the report of the previous census it reached 

 its climax (13.6 per cent.) in the Western Division. The same may 

 be said of forgery and rape, the latter reaching its apogee in the 

 South Central Division (1.0 per cent.), as against a lesser showing 

 (.05 and .03 per cent., respectively), in the other divisions. 



Homicide, the atavistic element in the criminal test, runs its en- 



