STATISTICS OF THE COST OF CRIME IN ENGLAND AND WALES.

[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.]

I.

A CONSIDERATION of the estimated annual expense of crime in England and Wales produces an impression in the mind of most persons, upon the ,subject of criminality, of a very practical nature, which comes tho- roughly home to the understanding. The pecuniary aspect of crime is one which forces itself upon many, in cases in which any other view would probably be disregarded. That there does exist a common ground of interest in this matter, even if it be the vulgar and mercenary one of Z. a. and d. when higher claims are set aside, is not less natural, than a source of satisfaction. A monetary view of the prospects of crime may IA the means of so exciting the interest, or of so engaging the inquiry, that it shall lead eventually to the consideration of the question upon more truly philanthropic grounds, when discussed upon scientific prin- ciples— and hence, although the aspect be an admittedly low one, it may be made the foundation upon which to build upwards towards a more elevated view. But if the cost of crime, as a medium of investigating the position of our criminal population, be not unsatisfactory, it is cer- tainly in harmony with the natural and the selfish instincts of the com- munity. Every individual of society possesses an interest in the na- tional outlay produced by crime. Even the professional criminal him- self, indirectly, and whilst at large, suffers from the depredations of him- self and his fellows. Above this, the lowest stage of society, no person escapes without either directly or indirectly, or perhaps by both causes, suffering from the expenses of criminality. The very fact that crime costs the country a certain sum year by year, suggests to every one some opinion upon the subject. And this opinion will be sharpened on re- flection that every person must bear his share of the burden, either by simply paying a portion of the rates and taxes, if he escape private and personal losses ; or by enduring actual robbery, with its attendant, and perhaps more ruinous, legal expenses, in addition to the ordinary and public calls upon the purse. Any statements, however, merely based upon the aggregate cost of crime, be the amount never so enormous, would convey nothing deeper than a generally alarming and a some- what superficial impression u[3on this important topic ; and hence he who is desirous to look below the surface, must inquire into many of the details of this national expenditure.

It will appear evident to those who give consideration to the subject, that the details of the cost of crime naturally divide themselves into three classes, each of which must be studied, apart and in combination, before any definite opinion can be formed on the question of the cost of crime.

The first of these details comprise all the public outgoing expenses which society pays for the supervision, the regulation, the detection, and the punishment of crime. One who inquires into this portion of the question must be told that, first of all, the Police Establishment, lately enforced throughout the kingdom by Act of Parliament, costs the country a certain annual sum. Next he must be informed that the expenses of prosecution creates a certain yearly outlay. Then he should learn that the Civil Service Estimates are voted, year by year, to the required amount for convict establishments. These latter charges upon the nation are manifold. They include, amongst other items, the cost of the county and borough gaols, the expenses of the rapidly increasing reformatories, the outlay for criminal lunatics, and the charges for the convict and Go- vernment Prisons at home and—including the cost of transportation in the colonies. Whilst, lastly, he should not be allowed to forgot that, besides all these stated and published expenses, chargeable in one way or

another upon the national revenues, which may be estimated, there exist other and no leas needful nor less costly outgoings, which possi- bly cannot be, and which certainly have not been, calculated in any offi- cial document accessible to the ordinary inquirer. A still more extended view of criminality will unfold itself to him who considers the second set of details connected with the cost of crime—who considers that the estimated official expenses which are made known to, and are liquidated by, the public, must form but a fractional portion of the total amount which changes hands from this cause. This will ap-

prove itself upon a moment's thought. When it is remembered that an organized professional class of criminals exists, well known to the police as to its prevailing characteristics, in its numbers and antecedents, and with its distinctions of sex and age, it forces itself upon the conviction, that such a class must not only live by preying upon society, but also that it will live—not less abstemiously than the class from which it mainly springs—upon the lawless gains which it squanders as soon as it acquires. These proceeds, enormous as they must be to sustain in any- thing short of penury the alarming population of habitual offenders which official statistics disclose, come entirely from the private purses of the public at large. Hence it will appear to he probable, that the ex- penses of crime which are so far positively known as to be officially re- gistered will fall far short of those losses endured by society which are not published, and which can only be calculated approximately, by a series of negatives that show, with any degree of certainty, below what amount they do not reach. And this prima facie opinion will hereafter be proved to bear an appearance well nigh determined.

Neither of these two aspects of the cost of crime exhaust the subject. To obtain at all a complete grasp of the whole question, it is necessary not only to study the estimated public expenditure of this costly drain upon the nation, and to collect data from which to argue upon the pro- bable private losses occasioned by our criminal classes, but it is requisite also to be in a position to state whether or not the cost of crime—as far as it may be tangible—has sensibly diminished of late years, is sta- tionary, or shows a propensity to increase. The inquirer who neglects this portion of the subject can necessarily pronounce a very incomplete judgment on the matter. Of course the proportionate expenditure on the criminal, population can only be obtained, to a certain extent, upon some items of outlay. For some detail, from our lack of reliable informa- tion, only lately published, the results cannot be obtained—and can only, by the veriest assumption, be guessed at. But upon points where pro- portion is feasible, it is essential that an attempt be made to ascertain the prospects of the pecuniary aspect of crime. And if it shall appear, from the results at his command, that the estimates for and the expenses of most, if not all, of the public appliances for the regulation and punish- ment of the law-breaking community, are either barely stationary, or are positively on the advance with no insignificant or hesitating strides, when compared with the official returns of former years, the inquirer will not only be in a position to offer an opinion upon the prospects of the cost of crime, but he will, in all probability, state his opinion in de- cided terms in a certain direction.

That which has been considered essential to the due understanding of the question, proposed for discussion, it will be the object of the following letters teendeavour to supply. Certain facts will be adduced—first, from the estimated charges upon the public purse ; secondly, from calculated leases to private individuals; and thirdly, from the proportionate expenses of the last few years, which it is hoped will tend to create a foundation for certain opinions upon the cost of crime. It will be understood that these facts are accessible to any ordinary inquirer. They are all taken from published official sources, and the only novelty about them is the circumstance that they are collected from more than a single bluebook, and are presented in a combination not elsewhere attainable. It must not be forgotten, on the other hand, that only certain, and a small por- tion, of the facts which might have been produced, have been collected. From the nature of the case it would be impossible to furnish all. Setting aside the inclination of the reader to wade through a mass of dry sta- tistics, the limits assigned to these letters preclude the possibility of giving more than a summary of what is left untold. Hence these letters will very incompletely and imperfectly perform their task. This result is predicted before hand; and a reason—not an excuse—provided for the omission of certain details, and for the somewhat meagre summary of others. Nevertheless, with all their shortcomings, if these letters suc- ceed, in any degree, to draw the attention of those who are competent to regulate, even if powerless to diminish, the expenses they disclose, con- sequent on the alarming progress of crime, the time which the reader has devoted will not,, it is hoped, be misapplied, and the labour expended upon voluminous statistics will certainly have been well re- warded.

Apart from the last year's volume of Judicial Statistics it would have been impossible to have calculated—even to the limited extent of the present compilation—any trustworthy statistics upon the cost of crime. Nor could the indefatigable Official Statistical Registrar, Mr. Samuel Redgrave, have accomplished his laborious work without the active co- operation of the Police Establishment. It is to the intelligent activity of this recently created force that the country is indebted for its present information upon the subject of crime. It must not be supposed that even yet, with all the hideous disclosures of the extent of crime which the police have placed upon record, we are at all in a position to argue upon the actual amount of our criminal population. We neither know, nor yet can know, the full particulars. Our compulsory constabulary force has been too short a time in existence to permit of a full develop- ment of even its contracted powers. With all external circumstances in their favour, it is impossible that, in each district, the newly-formed body could at once become acquainted with the details of crime within their jurisdiction. As it is, a large proportion of the establishment have had to learn their duties. They have had to acquire that discipline and knowledge, by practical training, without which the form would become an expensive and useless encumbrance. It cannot therefore be expected that, at so early a stage of corporate existence, the police could become so practically efficient, as to be enabled to describe the classes over which they exercise supervision with that degree of minuteness which is re- quisite. In many cases we now possess what will hereafter be expected of all. In some instances, returns which cannot be conscientiously filled up have been candidly and rightly omitted. This is as it should be. Imperfect details are worse than none. And it gives confidence in the statements made when, from a want of evidence, similar returns are

Withheld. It is but just to add, that those who are competent to give an opinion pronounce the new Police Establishment to be composed of an extremely efficient and intelligent body of men. Their past per- formances appear to justify the hope, that the present high character they y ar be only anticipates the expectations formed of their future la

b - Of course the almost exhaustive details supplied by Mr. Redg,rave more nearly affect the question of the extent of crime than of the cost of crime in England and Wales. However, very great light is thrown upon the latter subject by the Judicial Statistics—light, where before we only groped in the uncertain atmosphere of the most baseless conjecture. Especially are we indebted to this volume for an estimated account of the details of that portion of crime which is liquidated—in any form, local or general—from the public revenues. In the second division, likewise, of the subject, are the returns of the police, of much value. Indeed, without them, we could not at all calculate the amount of pri- vate losses below which it is safe to affirm that the truth does not fall; since the police returns furnish us with the numbers and accidents of that portion of society which we ever knew to exist, but could never es- timate—the portion which professionally makes crime a vocation. Of course, with no certain knowledge of the numbers of this class, it has been hitherto impossible to do more than guess at the annual income on which they thrive. But when we are assured that, at the least, a given population of professional criminals exist, it is comparatively easy to calculate, from other sources, a certain sum short of which it cannot be imagined they would be disposed to be limited. Something more exact than a rough estimate is thus obtained from the Judicial Statistics upon the second division alluded to above ; and it will presently appear that the third division cannot afford to dispense with the official information thus obtained. There is another source, however, from which much knowledge may be, with some amount of attention, derived—and that is, the published folios of the Civil Service Estimates. Of these estimates it is not too much to say that, to the generality of unofficial inquirers, they are to the last degree puzzling and complicated. At the least, they bear this character to every student of them who desires to compute results, and to arrive at details of expenditure, in any other form than the -very manner in which they are printed. With all their intricacy, they are nevertheless of great importance on the investigation of the proportionate expenditure on crime. Considerable use has been made of them on the present occasion ; and they have been made to testify to results of much moment, in the consideration of the question of the advance or decline of certain elements of criminal outgoing darings the last ten years.

Having thus concisely described the scope and object of the following letters, and having indicated the sources from which the facts are derived whereon future statements will be founded, it only seems needful to con- clude the present letter with a summary of the results, in order that a glance may suffice to perceive our present position and our past ex-

perience on the subject of the coat of crime. A single pre- liminary caution is required—the official statistics and the estimated details apply to England and Wales alone ; from the absence of available information, Ireland and Scotland are altogether omitted in the calcula- tion.

It appears then, from the official returns of the Judicial Statistics for the past year, from the Civil Service Estimates for the last ten years, and from other reliable sources—

I. That for the supervision of the criminal class, and for the preventative and retributive measures consequent on its existence—apart from much expenditure which cannot be calculated—the nation pays annually the sum of upwards of two millions and a half sterling of revenue.

II. That, in addition to two and a half millions of the public money, another large sum is lost every year to the public from the depreda- tions of a professional body of offenders well known to the police ; that, since this portion of society numbers at the least 135,000 persons mi- nutely classified by the police, and since it is well known that the sum on which they subsist not at all equals the loss occasioned to those who suffer by them, it cannot safely be estimated that a further amount changes owners privately of less than thirteen millions and a half annually. III. That most of the items which constitute the sum total of the public cost of crime, when compared with the estimates of former years, present either an almost stationary appearance, or are steadily and largely on the increase ; that upon the return for 1849 the expenses for 1858 are generally far in advance ; and that, especially in the Civil Service Estimates for the convict establishments in the United Kingdom and Ireland—as it is almost impossible to eliminate the estimates for Scotland and Ireland—and in the Colonies, there is an augmentation during ten years to the extent of upwards of 200,000/. These statistics, if they are admitted in the present stage of the in- quiry, must be taken on trust. The next letter will contain guarantees for a considerable portion of them and the remainder will follow in due order. Meanwhile, nothing further than the merest' outline of the sta- tistics of the cost of crime can be promised at present. All explanations' and details must be neglected and the bare facts allowed to stand pro- minently forward, unrelieved by any extenuating circumstances, that whilst the sums voted by Parliament in the year 1858 for the suppres- sion of crime very largely exceed the estimates ten years earlier, the total amount lost to the nation, either publicly in preventative and retri- butive measures, or privately at the hands of individual depredators, reaches the alarming sum of sixteen millions of money annually.

[To be continued.]

Ixeuuten.