It is impossible to decide with certainty whether, aside from the above-mentioned influence of the environment, the present economic system and its consequences have a harmful influence upon the social sentiments that is stronger in the case of non-possessors than it is in the case of possessors. It must be considered as certain (and the figures which I shall give farther along also show it) that the circumstances in which children and young people live among the proletariat is a cause of their being much more demoralized than the children of the bourgeoisie. The influences acting upon the adults of the two classes differ so much in nature and intensity that it is impossible to contrast their effects.
It is unnecessary to say that in what has preceded the possessing class has been contrasted with the proletariat alone, and not with the lower proletariat. It goes without saying that the environment in which the latter live makes them the class most destitute of the moral sense in the whole population. [[449]]
c. Marriage. To form an idea as to whether there is a relation between crime and marriage, and in this case, as to what its nature is, we must have recourse to statistics. Almost all the criminal statistics give information upon the civil status of criminals (England is the sole exception, I believe).
We shall commence with:
Austria, 1881–1899.[142]
| Status. | Years. | ||||||
| 1881–1885. | 1886–1890. | 1891–1895. | 1896. | 1897. | 1898. | 1899. | |
| Unmarried | 56.8 | 59.9 | 60.7 | 62.2 | 62.9 | 61.7 | 61.3 |
| Married | 39.9 | 36.9 | 36.2 | 34.7 | 34.1 | 35.3 | 35.3 |
| Widowers and widows | 3.2 | 3.1 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.3 |
Here the unmarried are more numerous than the married. It is different, however, in a neighboring country:
Hungary, 1888.[143]
| Status. | To 100 Convicts. | |||
| Men. | Women. | |||
| Assizes. | Corr. Tribun. | Assizes. | Corr. Tribun. | |
| Unmarried | 42.89 | 32.99 | 33.51 | 18.03 |
| Married | 54.66 | 62.31 | 53.08 | 69.29 |
| Widowers and widows | 2.36 | 4.06 | 13.08 | 11.46 |
| Divorced | 0.09 | 0.64 | 0.33 | 1.22 |
Here, then, the married persons far outnumber the unmarried. However, neither of these tables has much value, for first, nothing shows that from the total number of the unmarried those who have not yet reached marriageable age has been subtracted, and second, the corresponding figures for the non-criminal population are lacking, so that a comparison of the two is impossible. [[450]]