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Indiana University Studies 



delinquency, breaking peace bond, contempt of court, arrest on 

 bench warrant, assisting prisoner to escape. Under the heading, 

 miscellaneous, are included the following: cruelty to children, 

 abandonment or non-support of wife, of wife and children, and 

 bastardy. The heading, offenses not stated, explains itself. 



This classification differs from that in the census in that no 

 separate heading is made of "double crimes", and that the sub- 

 division "offenses against chastity" is made to include offenses 

 against chastity and morality. Some offenses are included under 

 headings in this study which are not so classified in the census 

 report; for example "provoke" is included under the heading 

 "offenses against public policy''. These changes are made because 

 of the difference in basis of figures in this study, which refer to 

 arrests, and that of the figures in the census report which refer 

 to commitments; also because certain offenses in the census 

 reports are not specifically classified on account of the small 

 numbers in such classes. 



The difficulty of reducing offenses to this classification and 

 the inexactness of such a classification are apparent. 7 The 

 inexactness, however, lies in eomparativelv few offenses of com- 

 paratively few numbers, and, moreover, the advantage of such 

 a proceeding lies in its simplicity for the purpose of the comparison 

 of general principles. For the three great classes of crimes are 

 universal: those against the person, those against property, and 

 those against society. 



An examination of the cases represented in this study arranged 

 according to race or nationality group and four principal classes 

 of kinds of offenses shows that in absolute numbers, in offenses 

 against the person, the Xew Immigration leads, followed in order 

 by the Americans, the Old Immigration, and the Colored with 

 almost equal numbers, the Asiatics and other Americans showing 

 negligible numbers. In offenses against property the Xew Immi- 

 gration leads, followed in order by the Colored, the Old Immigra- 

 tion, and the Americans. In offenses against chastity and 

 morality the Xew Immigration leads, followed closely in order 

 by the Colored, the Americans and the Old Immigratio i sho wing- 

 fewer numbers. In offenses against public policy the Xew Immi- 

 gration leads, followed in order by the Americans, the Old Immi- 

 gration, and the Colored. 



To determine the true relation, however, between race or 

 nationality and kind of offense, the proportion which each race 



7 Quinton, p. 94; Boies, pp. 88, 89. 



