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THE following pages are a translation of that portion of ProfessorFerri's volume on Criminal Sociology which is immediatelyconcerned with the practical problems of criminality. The Reportof the Government committee appointed to inquire into thetreatment of habitual drunkards, the Report of the committee ofinquiry into the best means of identifying habitual criminals, therevision of the English criminal returns, the Reports ofcommittees appointed to inquire into the administration of prisonsand the best methods of dealing with habitual offenders, vagrants,beggars, inebriate and juvenile delinquents, are all evidence ofthe fact that the formidable problem of crime is again pressingits way to the front and demanding re-examination at the hands ofthe present generation. The real dimensions of the question, asProfessor Ferri points out, are partially hidden by thesuperficial interpretations which are so often placed upon thereturns relating to crime. If the population of prisons orpenitentiaries should happen to be declining, this is immediatelyinterpreted to mean that crime is<p v> <p vi>on the decrease. Andyet a cursory examination of the facts is sufficient to show thata decrease in the prison population is merely the result ofshorter sentences and the substitution of fines or other similarpenalties for imprisonment. If the list of offences for trialbefore a judge and jury should exhibit any symptoms of diminution,this circumstance is immediately seized upon as a proof that thecriminal population is declining, and yet the diminution maymerely arise from the fact that large numbers of cases which usedto be tried before a jury are now dealt with summarily by amagistrate. In other words, what we witness is a change ofjudicial procedure, but not necessarily a decrease of crime.Again, when it is pointed out that the number of persons for trialfor indictable offences in England and Wales amounted to 53,044 in1874-8 and 56,472 in 1889-93, we are at a loss to see what colourthese figures give to the statement that there has been a real andsubstantial decrease of crime. The increase, it is true, may notbe keeping pace with the growth of the general population, but, asan eminent judge recently stated from the bench, this is to beaccounted for by the fact that the public is every year becomingmore lenient and more unwilling to prosecute. But an increase ofleniency, however excellent in itself, is not to be confoundedwith a decrease of crime. In the study of social phenomena ourparamount duty is to look at facts and not appearances.
But whether criminality is keeping pace with the growth ofpopulation or not it is a problem of great <p vii>magnitude allthe same, and it will not be solved, as Professor Ferri pointsout, by a mere resort to punishments of greater rigour andseverity. On this matter he is at one with the Scotchdepartmental committee appointed to inquire into the best means ofdealing with habitual o