VII.
H. Lux.[25]
In the chapter, “Die degenerirenden Einwirkungen des Kapitalismus”, this author treats of the question of criminality and its relation with present economic conditions.
“The property-holders, those who enjoy the benefits of all the political and social institutions, alone have the right to exist. Those without possessions do not have this right, despite the fiction of the Prussian code with regard to the matter. The simple instinct of self-preservation causes them to engage in a continual attack upon a legal system that protects only the stronger. It is this attack which those who are in possession of power, those who have drawn up the laws for the purpose of protecting their power, characterize as a breach of the law, as crime.… This is the simplest relationship between the form of society and crime. Naturally, complications come in.… The stronger those without property, the outlawed, themselves become through some chance, the more do they modify the law that was set up by those who were formerly stronger, the more do complications arise in the primitively simple right of property, the right to the protection of social institutions, and the law of marriage, and the greater and more complicated becomes the circle of crimes.”[26] [[238]]
After having next spoken briefly of free will, and having shown that it is incorrect to connect criminality with a single social phenomenon alone, since the social mechanism is too complicated, the author begins to treat of the crimes against property. In the first place he gives the following tables:
Germany.[27]
| Years. | Prices. | To 10,000 Inhabitants Over 10 Years Old. | |||||
| In Marks per 1,000 Kilogr. | In Pf. per Kilogr. | ||||||
| Of Bread. | Of Peas. | Of Potatoes. | Of Beef. | Of Pork. | Crimes Against Property. | Theft. | |
| 1881 | 198 | 251 | 43.5 | 114 | 128 | — | — |
| 1882 | 171 | 236 | 56.5 | 116 | 128 | 52.9 | 32.6 |
| 1883 | 155 | 241 | 45.5 | 120 | 128 | 51.0 | 31.6 |
| 1884 | 145 | 229 | 47.0 | 120 | 120 | 50.7 | 30.1 |
| 1885 | 147 | 212 | 38.0 | 119 | 120 | 48.6 | 27.9 |
| 1886 | 130 | 209 | 39.5 | 117 | 119 | 48.1 | 27.2 |
| 1887 | 135 | 198 | 41.5 | 113 | 115 | 47.1 | 26.0 |
| 1888 | 144 | 219 | 59.0 | 112 | 114 | 45.9 | 25.4 |
| 1889 | 162 | 209 | 42.0 | 117 | 128 | 49.3 | 28.1 |
Hungary.
| 1881 | 1882 | 1883 | 1884 | 1885 | 1886 | 1887 | 1888 | |
| Convicted of theft | 19. | 26.7 | 25.7 | 23.4 | 32.2 | 22.0 | 21.7 | 22.3 |
| Crop of maize per hectare | 16.1 | 20.0 | 16.8 | 17.2 | 20.5 | 15.5 | 14.2 | 18.0 |
| Crop,, of,, potatoes per hectare | 81.8 | 110.7 | 109.9 | 80.1 | 92.0 | 77.2 | 79.0 | 85.4 |
Finally, Dr. Lux cites some statistics from Kolb’s “Handbuch der vergleichenden Statistik”, which show the close connection between crimes against property and economic conditions.