STATISTICS OF THE COST OF CRIME IN ENGLAND AND WALES.

[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

IT was stated in the first letter of the present series that the annual astimated cost of crime in England and Wales amounted to sixteen millions sterling: and that of this sum I. 21 millions were certainly paid for the public supervision and punish- ment of the criminal classes ; and 11. 131 millions were probably lost to the community privately, by the depredations of professional law-breakers.

It now remains to attempt to make good these startling and outspoken assertions.

I. In the first place, it is apprehended that no doubt can be enter- tained of the accuracy of the former statement,—inasmuch as printed official statistics more than confirm the truth of the returns. The sources of this public outlay are twofold ; the one consisting of those estimates which can be calculated, and the other including all those which cannot be determined. Amongst those public outgoings which can only be guessed at, and which in the present inquiry are altogether omitted from consideration, Mr. Redgrave mentions the following :—Judges' and recorders' salaries, salaries and charges of stipendiary magistrates, fees, &e., paid to justices clerks, maintenance of court houses and justices' court rooms, the costs of coroners' courts, the expenses of the sheriffs, cost of prosecutions by public bodies and by prosecutors above the legal allowance, the charges for convicts in the county prisons, and many other expenses. These and similar charges, the proportion of which to be placed to the account of the administration of criminal justice are not easily defined or readily ascertained, form that portion of the public expenses of crime which cannot, with the present amount of official information, be determined. The second source of public outlay for the prevention and punishment of offenders consists of those items which may definitively be cal- culated. These details include-1, the expenses of the recently-established police force ; 2, the cost of prosecutions (as far as can be ascertained); 3, the Civil Service Estimates for the prison establishments. The last of this threefold division oontains many distinct charges ; amongst others _(a) for the county and borough prisons, (b) for the Government and . convict establishments, (c) for reformatories, (d) for criminal lunatics, (p) for convict services in the colonies, (f) for the expenses of transpor- °Wien.

These details may conveniently be considered. in order.

. 1. The charges for the police force amounted to 1,447,019/. for the year 1858.

The numerical strength of the police establishment is 20,256 men of .all ranks, from the commissioners to the constables. Thica.sum includes • the City police force, the metropolitan body, the county constabulary for 39 districts in England and 12 in Wales ; and the borough, city, or town police forces in 173 of the principal towns in the kingdom. The present is not the proper occasion on which to speak at length of the results obtained by the police in town and country. But since those who assist in liquidating the expenses of the establishment generally are desirous to learn in what manner their money is appropriated, it will not be amiss to state briefly a summary, of their returns. Not the least important of the benefits derived from the existence of a police force throughout the country, is the positive knowledge acquired of the numbers and antecedents of that class with which they chiefly have to deal. That section of society which makes criminality a calling is thus, for the first time, numerically estimated, and analysed accord- ing to age, sex and character. The results are as follows :—In addition to a prison population of 25,000 persons within the grasp of the law, there exists a criminal population at large and individually known to the police of 135,000—making a total, in round numbers' in each case, of 160,000 persons whose vocation is criminal. These 135,000 persons at large who prey upon society, are minutely subdivided by the police into different classes, although it is allowed that the classification cannot always be determined satisfactorily. Thus, 40,000 are known thieves and practised depredators ; 4300 are the receivers of stolen goods, and in all likelihood the instructors of youth in crime and the abettors and suggestive agents in vice ; 28,700 are professional prostitutes, and how often robbery is added to their unholy calling the police reports testify ; 39,000 are those who, failing to identify themselves as of good report, are termed "suspected persons " ; and 22,500 are catalogued as vagrants and tramps with no visible means of sustenance. Lastly, of these 135,000 members of the criminal profession, 53,000 are women of all ages ; and 19,000 are children of both sexes, below the ago of sixteen years.

These statistics, however, do not reach the limits of the labours of the police. Besides recording the numbers of the criminal class, they have returned the numbers of the houses of bad character they frequent throughout the kingdom, and these amount of 25,000; they have dis- covered, or have had brought to their notice, 57,800 indictable offences in the course of the year ; and during the same period they have brought to justice 39,000 persons charged with indictable offences, and 404,000 persons accused of offences determined summarily.

2. The cost of prosecutions amounts to 150,0001. yearly. 3. The yearly charges for the prison establishments reaches 1,108,828/. And these three sources of expenditure create an annual outlay of 2,705,847/.

The details of the last division—that which concerns the county prison and. convict services—require consideration.

(a). The county and borough prisons, which are scattered far and wide over the kingdom, cost the local revenues of the nation.no less a antncthan 530,285/. per annum.

(b). The expenses of the Government depOts and convict prisons at home are estimated at a yearly charge of 254,7111. Those establish- ments included, in the year 1868, the male prisons at Portland, Chatham and Pentonville, the mixed prison at Milbank, the juvenile establishment at Parkhurst, the invalid depots at Lewes and on Dart- moor, the female prison at Brixton, and the establishment—in truth a penal one—which is known by the anomalous and contradictory title of

The Refuge for Female Convicts at Fulham." Such is the estimate obtained from the judicial statistics. If, however, we turn to the volumes of the Civil Service Estimates, we shall find the expenses for each establishment calculated respectively. The results thus obtained are the following :—The estimated yearly charges for Milbank are 39,6001.; for Parkhurst, 15,0001. • for Portland, 54,0001. ; for Penton- ville,16,600/. • for Dartmoor, 42:800/. ; for Portsmouth, 44,0001.; for Brixton 17,60'01. ; for Fulham, 5900/. for Lewes, 12,6001. and for Chatham, 37,4001. The value and intention of these figures will be ex- plained at a later stage of the inquiry. The estimates do not altogether coincide with the amount of out-goings asserted by Mr. Redgrave. It is very possible, however, that there is an easy explanation of this want of harmony. Expenses incurred one year are often Chargeable to the following estimates, and by anticipation larger estimates are made than the actual outlay proves were needful. The above sums nevertheless indicate the approximate cost of the several penal depfits for every esti- mated expense during the year 1858.

(c). The charge for reformatories was voted in 1858 at 31,027/.

(d). The expenses of criminal lunatics amount to about 22,000/.

(e). The convict establishments abroad consume 225,968/. of the public money, in the colonies of New South Wales, Van Dieman's Land and Western Australia, in the Island of Bermuda, and on the Rock of Gibraltar.

(f).- The expenses of transportation for 1858 are calculated at 44,700/.

Such are the details of some of the more important items which:help to raise the national expenditure for the prevention and punishment of crime to the very high estimate of two millions seven hundred thousand pounds annually. It must not be forgotten that the entire cost of judi- cial proceedings for Scotland is omitted in this calculation ; nor that Ire- land, with its costly and efficient constabulory force, and with its pecu- liar and comparatively inexpensive system of convict management, its "Intermediate Establishments," and "Conditional Liberation," is not in- chided. And it should be borne in mind that many important charges are necessarily, from lack of information, withheld. England and Wales alone consume upwards of 21 millions sterling, in a manner of which— in concluding this portion of the subject—it may not be undesirable to give the following summary:

......... Police establishment £1,447,019 Coat of prosecutions 150,000

52r4Z11 Prison establishments—

County and borough prisons Government and convict prisons Reformatories Criminal lunatics 22,122 Convict d6p6ts in the Colonies 225,968 Expenses of transportation 44,715 Total .£2,705,847 II. Having thus accounted, in a manner which almost precludes a question, for the lesser portion—the 2j millions defrayed from public sources—of the frightful incubus whtch lies so heavily, and to the estimated extent of 16 millions sterling, upon the vitals of society, it remains that the greater portion—the 13i millions levied by individual depredators upon individual victims—be substantiated. Although this is by far the more difficult of the two tasks satisfactorily to perform, yet it is anticipated that the judgment of the reader will go along with the line of argument employed. He must however banish those preconceived opinions which arise from a limited acquaintance with the subject ; and he must remember how reasonable are the foundations on which the theory is based, and how much is withheld which, according to the opinions of' those most qualified to judge, might lawfully be enforced. It is admitted at the outset that no more determinate a calculation upon the loss inflicted upon private persons can be obtained than the merest approximation. From the nature of the case, this could not be otherwise. With all the information brought to light by the police, we have arrived at but little certainty upon the question. Yet it may be added that the little knowledge we possess is far greater, and in- comparably more reliable, than any information our ancestors had or could possess. Our twilight is brighter than their mid-day, and chiefly for this reason—that the little we know we are assured of, whilst the still less with which they were acquainted they only guessed at. Our position as far as it goes is impregnable. We can state a sum under which there is no reason to believe that the cost of this particular branch of crime falls ; and this sum is calculated on a probable ratio from a certain foundation. We cannot, indeed, undertake to say by how much a larger estimate the actual amount would be raised if the data by which we are guided were more extended. As it is, however, we are enabled, with greater precision than some persons contemplate, to set down the minimum of the aggregate of individual losses ; and that advantage has not been taken of certain facts allowed to swell this amount, but rather that much moderation has been employed in the calculation, the result will prove.

How then do we obtain data to estimate this impalpable amount? Somewhat after this fashion, and from the following considerations :— The question in itself—and apart from the possibility of obtaining a satis- factory solution—is no novelty to criminal statistics. Both public and, private bodies have, at different times and under various circumstances endeavoured to calculate the sum yearly lost to society from the activity of the habitual and professional offender. These estimates, approximating more or less nearly to the truth according to advantages possessed by their authors, met with a greater or less amount of credit. That they could only accidentally be correct, the information we possess, and they lacked, assures us. And how widely distant from the mark these random efforts flew, a retrospective view of them will abundantly satisfy. It is true that these calculations seldom led people to imagine themselves to be less spoiled and defrauded than actually was the case : and if it was a well-intentioned device to arouse the community to a due sense of the growing extent of crime, the ruse was not altogether destitute of success. For instance, at the commencement of the present century, Mr. Coign- hoists, a police magistrate in London, estimated a loss to the metropolis alone, at the hands of professional depredators, to the extent of two millions sterling annually. Later, in the year 1836, the watch committee in Liver- pool returned a somewhat similar estimate for their own city—and this they declared amounted to not less than 700,000/. in the course of the year. Both calculations entered largely into detail, and the committee declared its conviction that this sum, large as it appears, "was not exag- aggerated, but, on the contrary, was greatly understated." Mr. Red- grave, however—and few persons possess more accurate means of informa- tion—imagined these figures to be, in truth, beyond the actual amount lost to society in the respective localities. He states that of late years "the value of property stolen has been placed on record from the actual re- turns of the police in several large districts ; but that the information was deemed to be too imperfect to make it a subject of general inquiry." The course which Mr. Redgrave has adopted—in witholding statistical information—is much to be regretted. The first year's returns would, without all doubt, be incomplete and fragmentary. But future years would tend to supply deficiencies—and even the earlier records could not fail to be of value. The evidence would be taken for what it was le- gitimately worth, and standing ground would have been procured for fu- ture advances. Of course, under the most favourable circumstances, the returns of the police must fall very far short of the actual loss inflicted upon the victims of depredation. Much that is lost remains unreported ; since many persons would prefer to suffer uncomplainingly than render themselves liable to the further annoyance and expense of obtaining jus- tice. Neither do the losses which come to the knowledge of the police bear any proportion to the positive outgoings which are incurred by, or consequent on, their recovery, or the _punishment of the offender. These opinions receive a remarkable confirmation at the hands of those statistics which Mr. Redgrave publishes. He gives the returns of the police on this subject in two instances. In the metropolis the average yearly amount of loss by depredation is stated to be under 50,0001.: ix Manchester it is said not to exceed 16,000/. These numbers are not only much out of proportion with former calculations, but they also do not at all harmonize with the data prepared by Mr. Redgrave for his own cal- culation. These data will be considered below : meanwhile it may be stated that they would prove London to lose yearly by depredation up- wards of 700,000/. and Manchester not less than 130,0001.

It is, however, from two main sources that we are in a position to cal- culate the amount of private losses from crime in the course of the year— the recently published volume of judicial statistics, and the first report of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the question of establish- ing a county constabulary force, which is dated 1839. Amongst other points of information which this report contains that will assist in the formation of a judgment, is the return made to the Liverpool municipal council three years previously of the probable amount of money gained by a certain number of depredators in that town during a single year. These details are made with great minuteness, and are founded on evi- Alamo derived from those best fitted to disclose it. From the report of this committee then—to consider some of these details in order—it ap- 'pears that in Liverpool, during the year 1836, there were known to be %wards of 1200 juvenile thieves whose average incomes, by preying on the public purse, were not less than 10s. a week. This sum is the lowest I estimate assigned by the committee, and it will be remarked that it is. the average for those not yet adults in crime. The highest estimate, on the other hand, is a weekly mcoming from dishonest sources of 31. The item is thus returned by the official report :—" 400 men who discharge vessels in the docks, and steal for themselves and others to, the extent of 60s. a week each." These then are the extreme gains of the juvenile delinquent and the habitual criminal on an average for every week in the year. Between them we have to try and strike an equitable mean. For example, in the middle position we find seventy notorious thieves under fifteen years of age who make 11. a week by pilfering: we find 100 dock " wallopers " who make also their 20s. a week by peculation : we read of 100 adult professional thieves who earn 21. a week from their vocation : find of 500 of the same class who combine honesty with crime, who work and steal alternately, and who realize by the latter calling somewhere about 208. weekly. Again, there were a body of fifty known hawkers, whose avowed business, in part, was to steal or to teach others to rob ; and their weekly gains reached 208. And, lastly, there

were no fewer than 3000 known prostitutes, who by robbery and by plying of their godless calling realize 30s. a week ; and 1200 more who make 2/. a week. This combination is unhappily but too well known to the police courts ; for in Liverpool alone in a single year, from one house of ill fame, robberies to the amount of 1000/. were perpetrated.

Hence it will appear, if an average be obtained from these statistics — keeping in mind the fact that juvenile delinquency, especially in this age of reformatories, bears but a small proportion to adult crime — that each individual member of the criminal class lives on an income of, at the least, 30s. a week. The truth of this statement is confirmed by reference to other details of crime, and to the voluntary admission of criminals themselves. Neither is this result unsubstantiated by the dic- tates of common sense. The report of the committee, before alluded to, gives it as an opinion of which they entertained no doubt, that "in point of sensual gratification, the condition of the habitual depredator is, dur- ing his career, much higher than that of the honest labourer who lives on wages which afford a share of the comforts of life." And it is diffi- cult to assign a reason for the contrary supposition. The temptations to a career of vice must offer corresponding advantages to the professional law-breaker, otherwise it would be more worth his while to remain an honest man. The advantages, consequently, to be reaped must be con- siderably in advance of the average wages of his class, to insure the

criminal against the many risks which beset his path. An uninterrupted

warfare against society could not be sustained unless the chances of pil- lage were proportionately large. Hence, if the average wages of the agricultural labourer and of the skilled artisan are calculated, it will seem to fall short of the truth, rather than to exceed it, when it is as- serted that 308. a week may be safely allowed to be the criminal earnings of the habitual offender.

This sum, however, by no means exhausts the atatement. It is urged by Mr. Redgrave that whatever sum be spent by the professional cri- minal; such a sum cannot be levied on the private purses of the public at large at a loss to the latter of less than double all such expenditure. It is true that Mr. Redgrave estimates the average adult criminal gains at the sum obtained by the juvenile Liverpool delinquent, whioh would be but poor. wages for honest industry ; but, apart from this calculation, which cannot be entertained, it would appear to be reasonable that, ex- cept in the single case of the robbery of coin in any shape, the amount lost by the victim should be only one half of the gain eventually acquired and then spent by the culprit. This statement being allowed, it would result that a loss to the public of 3/. weekly is sustained by the depreda- tions of every member of the recognized criminal class. At this stage then, the second source of information enters into the account. At a figure certainly below the truth, the judicial statistics have, for the first time, estimated the criminal population of England and Wales at 135,000 persons at large, of varied character, of. both sexes, and of all ages. The amount obtained by the multiplication of these two sums would be enormous, and scarcely to be credited. To be within all possible bounds of caution, let us suppose the criminal losses to be 2/. a week for each habitual offender; and to diminish still further this amount, as well as to render more convenient the calculation, let us sup- pose 100/. a year to be the cost of crime for every habitual offender. This would produce the result formerly estimated of 13,500,000/. as the annual loss from private sources on account of crime ; and if to this be added the 2,500,0001. which form the officially-stated expenses of our criminal population to the public revenues, it follows that the total cost of crime in England and Wales for a single year amounts to 16,000,0001.

[7b be continued.] INQUIRER.