The present report shows, that of 30,458 persons, 5,398 were of previous good character, and 7,886 were known to be of bad character. Out of 404,034 proceeded against summarily, 148,178 were of “previous good character,” and of 130,502 it was not known to be bad.
The Report of Coroner’s inquests for the year gives a total of 19,846, against 20,167 in 1857, and 22,221 in 1856. The diminution is ascribed to the fact that in 1856 the rule was established not to allow the expenses of inquests when it turned out that the death ensued from natural causes, and without any ground to suspect a criminal act or culpable neglect; and it is also alleged, that police officers are not disposed to give notice of cases that might properly fall under the Coroner’s investigation. There is, certainly, a singular uniformity in the operation of the causes that result in death by violence and accident. When we think of the changes in the condition of society—the fluctuations of business—and the excitements of passion, it seems scarcely credible that so comparatively slight a variation should occur in a succession of years; for example:—
| 1858. | 1857. | 1856. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Murder | 183 | 184 | 205 |
| Manslaughter | 197 | 187 | 271 |
| Justifiable Homicide | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| Suicide, or Self-murder | 1,275 | 1,349 | 1,314 |
| Accidental Death | 8,947 | 8,930 | 9,716 |
| Injuries from causes unknown | 764 | 237 | 424 |
| Found dead | 2,611 | 2,949 | 3,183 |
Only 1 difference in the murders of 1857 and 1858, only 10 in manslaughter, and only 17 in accidental deaths; and in suicides, only 35 difference between 1856 and 1857.
It is worthy of remark that, of the 19,846 inquests held, 5,517 were children seven years old or under, and 3,318 were aged or infirm persons over sixty; showing that 44½ per cent. were persons least able to protect themselves from accident or injury. The average cost of each inquest was $15 dollars.
The total number of convicts in custody during the year was 11,292, of whom 1,326 were women. Of the whole number, 110 died, 3 escaped, and only 36 were pardoned! The daily average, for the year, was 7,859, and the annual cost of each prisoner was $157.50, or about 42 cents per day. This sum is subject to a reduction to the extent of the value of their labor.
The Reformatory Schools have risen from 1 in 1854, to 47 in 1858; and the number of inmates, from 21 to 700. To these schools, the government allows $1.75 per week, for each inmate; and the Managers have authority to require a contribution from the parents, when able. From the former source $127,844 were received, and from parents $3,738; showing the cost of each inmate, under these items alone, to be $187 per annum; and the Report has no allusion to their labor as of any value. The average cost in any House of Refuge in the United States, with which we are acquainted, does not much exceed $100.
There is now an extension of the system of Reformatory Schools, which will doubtless prove of much value. The law authorizes a provisional commitment, to certified industrial schools, of children taken into custody on a charge of vagrancy,—after due inquiry into the condition of their parents, and of the circumstances of their arrest,—to be detained till fifteen years of age, unless suitable provision is made for their care and employment elsewhere. The present (1859) is the first year of its operation.
It is not easy even to approximate an estimate, in money, of the cost to which crime subjects a community. Sixty years ago, Colquhoun, in his work on the “Police of the Metropolis,” estimated the loss by depredation, in London alone, at ten millions of dollars; and the Watch-Committee of Liverpool, in an elaborate report in 1836, stated the loss in that borough, by depredation, at not less than three million five hundred thousand dollars, declaring that this was not exaggerated, but, on the contrary, much less than the actual amount. We suppose that in such an estimate are included, not only the property abstracted by theft and robbery, but also the fruits of the various species of frauds on the government and on public institutions, fraudulent bankruptcies, losses by incendiary fires, and various kinds of malicious mischief.
To the value of property sacrificed to crime, must be added the expenses of police, prosecutions and prisons, amounting to not less than twelve millions of dollars; and to these we must add a large sum for a proportion of the salaries of judges and justices, and their clerks; the maintenance of court-houses; costs of coroners’ inquests; expenses of sheriffs; costs of prosecution by public bodies, and costs paid by private prosecutors over and above the costs allowed; charges for convicts and colonies, &c.