The best means of settling the question is by a direct statistical study. I have made calculations, based upon the criminal statistics, of more than 126,000 individuals sentenced during the period from 1901 to 1909, in the Netherlands. Here are the results:
Netherlands, 1901–1909.
| Offenses. | Number Sentenced to 100,000 of the Population Over 10 Years Old. | ||||
| Protestant. | Catholic. | Jew. | Not Members of Any Religion. | Total | |
| All offenses | 308.6 | 416.5 | 212.7 | 84.2 | 337.3 |
| Theft | 40.0 | 54.8 | 25.5 | 9.6 | 43.9 |
| Aggravated theft | 19.9 | 24.0 | 12.7 | 5.2 | 20.7 |
| Receiving stolen goods | 2.6 | 3.5 | 9.2 | 0.7 | 3.0 |
| Embezzlement | 8.6 | 9.3 | 13.1 | 1.9 | 8.7 |
| Fraud | 2.4 | 2.5 | 3.9 | 0.4 | 2.4 |
| Offenses against public decency | 1.9 | 3.4 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 2.4 |
| Minor sexual offenses | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.0 |
| Rape | 1.5 | 2.2 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 1.8 |
| Sexual crimes with persons under 16 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| All sexual crimes | 5.1 | 7.1 | 4.1 | 1.6 | 5.7 |
| Rebellion | 25.9 | 37.0 | 13.2 | 12.2 | 29.0 |
| Assaults | 74.4 | 98.2 | 43.2 | 20.1 | 80.1 |
| Serious assaults | 8.5 | 11.0 | 3.9 | 1.9 | 9.1 |
| Homicide and murder | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.5 |
The results are the following, then: the first place is almost always occupied by the Catholics, the second by the Protestants, and then come the Jews (except in cases of receiving stolen goods, embezzlement, and fraud), and the minimum of criminality (in all crimes without exception) is shown by the irreligious!
Here we have not the task of explaining this fact, we only bring it out; and we have the right to declare that the thesis: “irreligion leads to crime”, is not correct. [[210]]
[1] [See the author’s explanation of his use of this term in the preface.—Transl.] [↑]