Criminality and economic conditions

by Willem Adriaan Bonger

After having tried to show, by the aid of some historical examples, that the conditions in the system which preceded ours were of a nature much more serious than those of our own day, he continues as follows:

“In the study of economic conditions, and whatever bearing they may have upon crime, I can do no better than to repeat, as a general idea, a statement made some years ago by Mr. Ira Steward, of Massachusetts, one of the leading labor reformers in that state in his day. He said: ‘Starting in the labor problem from whatever point we may, we reach, as the ultimate cause of our industrial, social, moral, and material difficulties, the terrible fact of poverty. By poverty we mean something more than pauperism. The latter is a condition of entire dependence upon charity, while the former is a condition of want, of lack, of being without, though not necessarily a condition of complete dependence.’

“It is in this view that the proper understanding of the subject given me, in its comprehensiveness and the development of the principles which underlie it, means the consideration of the abolition of pauperism and the eradication of crime; and the definitions given by Mr. Steward carry with them all the elements of those great [[196]]special inquiries embodied in the very existence of our vast charitable, penal, and reformatory institutions, ‘How shall poverty be abolished, and crime be eradicated?’ ”[27]

Let the circumstances be favorable or unfavorable, let the governments be liberal or despotic, let the religion and commercial systems be what they may, crime has always existed. This is why it would exist even if there were no longer any unemployment, if everyone had received an education, if the efforts of temperance societies and social reformers had been realized, and Christianity were universal. But all these good influences together would certainly reduce crime to the minimum.

Criminality will decrease but little if the improvements have to do simply with the physical condition and not at the same time with moral and intellectual conditions. It is, on the other hand, not to be disputed, according to the author, that a development of these last qualities will have a favorable influence upon criminality. For the man who has received an education will betake himself to crime less quickly than the ignorant man, while on account of his education he will generally be able to find work to protect him against poverty and crime. The lack of work is an important cause of crime; for example, among the convicts of Massachusetts there were 68% who had been without work, and in the whole United States in 1890, 74% of the murderers had been without work. This lack of employment may have been because of an antipathy to work or of a lack of opportunity. And it is this last case especially that occurs only too often in the present social organization.

Great improvements are urgently demanded; living conditions must become better and more sanitary, and work must be better paid. The fundamental complaint of the writer against political economy is that it has not considered moral forces as one of its elements. As soon as it shall have considered them as such it will have entered upon the way that leads to real improvements.

After having indicated what these improvements ought to be, the author goes on in these terms: “In a state in which labor had all its rights there would be, of course, little pauperism and little crime. On the other hand, the undue subjection of the laboring man must tend to make paupers and criminals, and entail a financial burden upon wealth which it would have been easier to prevent than to endure; and this prevention must come in a large degree through educated labor. [[197]]

“Do not understand me as desiring to give the impression that I believe crime to be a necessary accompaniment of our industrial system. I have labored in other places and at other times to prove the reverse, and I believe the reverse to be true. Our sober, industrious working men and women are as free from vicious and criminal courses as any other class. What I am contending for, relates entirely to conditions affecting the few. The great volume of crime is found outside the real ranks of industry.”[28]

It might still be asked whether civilization favors crime. The answer would have to be at once affirmative and negative. Affirmative in exceptional times, otherwise negative. The more civilization advances, the better the condition of the working people will become, the more equitable will be the division of profits, and the more crime will diminish. The attempts of Robert Owen and many others prove the truth of this.

The author closes his study with these words: “Trade instruction, technical education, manual training—all these are efficient elements in the reduction of crime, because they all help to better and truer economic conditions. I think, from what I have said, the elements of solution are clearly discernible. Justice to labor, equitable distribution of profits under some system which I feel sure will supersede the present, and without resorting to socialism, instruction in trades by which a man can earn his living outside a penal institution, the practical application of the great moral law in all business relations—all these elements, with the more enlightened treatment of the criminal when apprehended, will lead to a reduction in the volume of crime, but not to the millennium; for ‘human experience from time immemorial tells us that the earth neither was, nor is, nor ever will be, a heaven, nor yet a hell’, (Dr. A. Schäffle) but the endeavor of right-minded men and women, the endeavor of every government, should be to make it less a hell and more a heaven.”[29]