condition which must be considered in the discussion of any better administration of criminal law.
3. No small portion of criminality is due to immigration, since a comparatively large proportion of criminals are foreign-born. No country which receives the convicts and outcasts of other countries can expect a decrease of crime by an improved system of law while the influx continues.
The system of electing judges for a short period of time, and the appointment of penitentiary incumbents by political methods, are well-recognized evils, to which reference has been made. Immigration, the negro element, and the errors in the political and judicial system are three elements which must be considered in a study of crime in the United States. The increase of crime, notwithstanding the deficient statistics, is shown by the following table to be worthy of grave consideration :[1]
| Year | Prisoners in United States |
Ratio to population |
|---|---|---|
| 1850, | 6.737 | 1 in 3,442 |
| 1860, | 19,086 | 1 in 1,617 |
| 1870, | 32,901 | 1 in 1,171 |
| 1880, | 58,609 | 1 in 855 |
| 1890, | 82,329 | 1 in 757 |
It is true, an apparent decrease of crime may only mean defective laws, and it is not infrequent that the moral progress of a nation is marked by its increase in criminality; but when this rate of increase is compared with that of other countries, it is seen to be unusually large.
From the preceding statement of the lines of reform upon which criminal anthropologists are engaged it will be seen that the science and the jurisprudence are vitally related, and that the sole purpose of the former is to provide a more accurate, logical basis for the latter, to eradicate many of the existing principles and the system of their administration. It will be seen that only a comparatively small number of isolated attempts have been made in the direction of the "new jurisprudence." These isolated attempts are of but little value, as most of the reforms are closely related or developed out of each other, and, if given a fair test, it should be as part of a system. This can be well illustrated by the operation of the habitual-criminal act in Massachusetts. There is no accurate method of identification, and most of
- ↑ This table is misleading in its representation of the increase in crime, owing to the inaccuracy of the reports preceding 1870.
