400 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



sanguined thread through the North Atlantic Division at the rate of 

 .04 per cent. ; in the South Atlantic, 4.3 per cent. ; in the Forth Cen- 

 tral, 1.4 per cent., and 9.2 per cent, in the South Central, while the 

 " wild and woolly west," contrary to the generally accepted reputation, 

 gives us but 1.5 per cent, of homicides. It has improved in this re- 

 spect since the date of the previous census (1890) which assigns to 

 that section 27.8 per cent, and to the South Central 22.7 per cent, 

 against its present 4.3 per cent. — a marked veering in the mercurial 

 tendency accountable upon no known law in criminal anthropology. 



Percentage or Crimes to Population by Geographical Division. 



Crime 



N.Atlantic S Atlantic N. Central. S Central Western 



The total number of homicides in the United States for the year 

 1904 is given at 10,744, as against 7,351 in 1890, an increase of over 

 20 per cent, during that period. 



As a general rule, the excess of given offences in the southerly 

 divisions is due to the preponderance of the negro element, 67 per 

 cent, of minor offences being attributable to whites, and 83.8 per 

 cent, to the negro race. 



Among minor offences drunkenness adds its quota of interest 

 to the general perturbation, oscillating from 5.0 per cent, in the South 

 Atlantic to fever line in the North Atlantic Division at 32.3 per cent., 

 and falling to blood heat at 21.6 per cent, in the North Central, 

 thence to 3.8 per cent, in the South Central and gradually tapering off 

 the mathematical debauch in 6.3 per cent, accredited to the Western 

 Division. 



The variation in crime in this respect is no indication of the fre- 

 quency of the offence, however; it rather reflects the public policy of 

 the given section as expressed in the manner and form of the punish- 

 ment for this particular offence. There is no special table of the ex- 

 isting habits of the prisoners enumerated, hence no way of reaching 



