TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 
105 
irwperceni.oi viieiiuuMcuujuij'»u»iauv...~. .. , . • 
yd to hare *o powerful au influence in repreasmR enme, and females bang Icm 
lynted than males, that the amount of crime is not also greater aniong the Icmaie 
»: this areument would bo found based on a very narrow and limited view ot 
aenuertion. The applicsiioo of the mere test of education itself wtll not ^ways 
to nScient w determine the relative amount of crime. Before applying this or 
tofTKher test,5tK necessary, ici order to witness its full effect, t^hat the two croups 
cMfsred thoidd be similar in all other conditions, social and otherwise, and simply 
iftf in regard to the one clement, the force of which it is proposed to meiuuw. 
»a>etg the various elcoieuts influencing crime, sex has fornieriy been shown tone 
lacfl important one, on the aggregate of ages the tendency to crime in the male 
« Iting to that iu the female sex as *297^ is to *06113, in (act, nearly five tinies 
fTMa in the tunic sw. It is not enough to take into view simply the menial and 
toiol conditions of the niind itself, but those conditions in relation to the external 
drainatsDces and state of society. Sufficient evidence was brought forward in the 
bfmrr paper to prove tlmt while education remains unaltered or ccinstant in the 
tkAU}. crime may be fluctuating or gradually increasing or deerensing under the 
aflitosceaf the altered external circumstances with which man is surrounded, and in 
liUnamitr may education increase and become more general, as appears to have 
h?ta the case from the facts disclosed by the registers ol* marriage, wliich show that 
the propariton of males unable to sign their names has gmdiinlly changed from 33*7 
fneent. iu 1839. to 32'4 percent, in 1841, while during the same years the propor¬ 
tion of male criminals who could ncitlier read nor write hasdccretwcd from 33*00 
■*fwt. to 29*77 per cent.; and all tliis time crime may also have increased; but, 
*j 11 it will remain a fact that education counteracts the tendency to crime, so long 
to the returns show ihat, everything else being the same, crime is at n minimum 
vhw education is at a maximum, and that where education is least, crime is highest. 
•he concluding portion of Mr. Neisoti’s paper entered into an examination of the 
ftlaote tendency ut various ages to specific forms of crime. In the paper read at 
We meeting in 1846, the tendency to crime in ilsacgregutc form, at various terms of 
'le, «hown to follow a very remarkable law. i'Vom the age of ^ it was found 
iMt the tendency tu crime in the male sex decreases at the rate of 33*333 per cent, 
term of life recognised in the tables presented; and in the female sex the 
tendency is at the rate of 25 per cent, but tvs then anticipated, it vvill now 
the element of age becomes of still more importance in the investigation, 
ko conadering specific forms of crime. The remits thus obtained were set forth 
*»nes of tables, of which the following are striking examples. Comparing the 
^cy to crime of different forms at ages 16-21, with the ensuing terra of life, 
“«tollo»ing results appear 
Class 1, of offences against the person— 
16-81. 
21-30. 
•05C22 
•66800 
Diff. =: *01178 or + 20*95 per cent. 
“ ass 2, offences gainst property, with violence— 
16 - 21 , 
21-30, 
07613 
04643 
Diff. = -02970 or — 39*01 per cent. 
^ 3, offences against property, without violence— 
16-21, 
21-30, 
■59929 
■39109 
Diff. s= -20820 or - 34*89 per cent. 
