| Prisoners in general | 43.7 |
| Sexual criminals | 51.7 |
| Thieves | 47.3 |
| Swindlers | 34.8 |
| Incendiaries | 31.0 |
| Perjurers | 23.0 |
Finally it must be mentioned that 16.2% of 1,714 in the detention prison had alcoholic parents.
We are now at the end of our statistical data and also of our observations upon the environment in which criminals are brought up; for it seems to me superfluous to make further comments: the great influence of environment is indubitable.
Tomel and Rollet close their work “Enfants en prison” with these words, which I make my own, and which are as applicable to adult as to juvenile criminals: “Has society done everything that it ought to spare children the prison? We believe that with ourselves [the reader] will answer, ‘No!’ Each child to whom we refuse protection will become a delinquent. It is a wolf that we are preparing for the sheep-fold. If tomorrow he makes his fellows pay his own arrears of injustice, if he steals, if he kills, he will not say, ‘I commit a crime’; he will say, ‘I make reprisals.’ ”[266]
f. Prostitution. Prostitution has a special importance for the etiology of sexual offenses and of procuration. However, it is not with this that we are concerned at present, but with the correlation between prostitution and criminality in general, in the sense, that is, that prostitution has a demoralizing effect upon the women who practice it and upon the men who have intercourse with them. [[505]]
Let us begin with the effect upon the prostitutes themselves. And as with all observations upon the relation between certain social phenomena and criminality, these must be preceded by statistical data.
How large a quota do prostitutes contribute to crime? This is a hard question to answer, because, first, most criminal statistics make no mention of the occupation of prostitute; second, when the statistics do mention prostitution they do not give the real truth, since the facts will often be concealed by the woman interested; third, the extent of prostitution is almost unknown, so that it is impossible to make the necessary calculations.
The following figures give us some information on the subject.