Whatever may be the defects of this education, it is at least an education; the children are watched, prevented from getting into bad society, etc. The consequence is that the children of the well-to-do almost never get into the courts. This sad monopoly is reserved for the children of the poor.[205] This is not to say that the defects of education among the well-to-do classes are not among the causes of the criminality to be met with in the adults of these classes. When a poor devil appears in court it will often happen that his counsel in defending him will draw attention to the fact that the environment in which his client has grown up is one of the causes of his fall; but it does not often happen that the advocate makes a similar appeal when his client is from the well-to-do. It is generally believed that nothing is wanting in the moral education of one who has not known poverty, and has not been neglected; but this is a mistake. There can be no doubt that one of the factors of criminality among the bourgeoisie is bad education.
The figures of the following tables show that it is almost exclusively the children of the poor who are guilty of crime.
England and Scotland.
According to the English law the parents of children placed in a “Reformatory” or an “Industrial School” must, if they are able, contribute toward their children’s expenses. The following table shows the assessments due in 1882 (in shillings per week).[206] [[485]]
| Total. | Exempt. | Less than 1 Shill. | 1 Shill. and More. | 2 Shill. and More. | 3 Shill. and More. | 4 Shill. and More. | 5 Shill. | |
| Reformatories | ||||||||
| Absolute numbers | 6,601 | 3,858 | 257 | 1,818 | 573 | 66 | 15 | 14 |
| Percentage | 100.0 | 58.5 | 3.9 | 27.5 | 8.7 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Industrial Schools | ||||||||
| Absolute numbers | 17,641 | 10,406 | 600 | 3,904 | 2,316 | 301 | 67 | 20 |
| Percentage | 100.0 | 59.1 | 3.4 | 22.2 | 13.1 | 1.7 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
A little less than 60% of the parents, then, were unable to make any contribution, 25 to 30% of them were able to pay less than two shillings, while the remaining 10 or 15% were working people not at all well-to-do.[207]
France.[207]
The French “statistique pénitentiaire” gives information with regard to the financial condition of the parents of the children received into the “Etablissements d’éducation correctionnelle.” The following figures covering the years 1878 to 1882[208] will give a sufficiently accurate notion, as figures for a longer period would lead to the same results.
| Children Belonging to Parents | 1878. | 1879. | 1880. | 1881. | 1882. | 1878–1882 Average Percentage. | ||||||
| Boys. | Girls. | B. | G. | B. | G. | B. | G. | B. | G. | B. | G. | |
| Well-to-do | 81 | 32 | 75 | 60 | 61 | 3 | 50 | 4 | 43 | 5 | 0.9 | 1.2 |
| Living by their own labor | 5,874 | 1,254 | 5,799 | 1,177 | 5,800 | 1,224 | 5,455 | 1,154 | 5,300 | 1,090 | 79.3 | 68.7 |
| Mendicants, vagabonds, prostitutes | 923 | 421 | 956 | 433 | 809 | 429 | 726 | 395 | 697 | 349 | 11.5 | 23.6 |
| Unknown, disappeared, deceased | 707 | 133 | 684 | 138 | 545 | 102 | 546 | 84 | 486 | 101 | 8.3 | 6.5 |
| Total | 7,585 | 1,840 | 7,514 | 1,808 | 7,215 | 1,758 | 6,777 | 1,637 | 6,527 | 1,545 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
After 1882 the penitentiary statistics no longer mention the financial condition of the parents, but their occupation. The results confirm those that we have just cited. [[486]]