Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/383

 IMMIGRATION AND CRIME.

THE article on "Delinquents" by Mr. F. W. Hewes, in the Outlook of March 7, 1896, was in strict accordance with the apparent facts, as shown by the census of 1890, and was doubt- less intended to be correct in its conclusions ; yet so far as it bears upon the subject of Immigration and Crime it is mislead- ing at every point save one.

Mr. Hewes says : (a) " Of each ten thousand white persons born in this country, a little less than nine (8.82) were imprisoned as criminals ; while of each ten thousand white per- sons born in foreign countries nearly twice as many (17.44) were convicts." He says : "Few criminals six (6.12) to each ten thousand would be found among our white popula- tion if they were all born of parents both of whom were born

here Were all our native-born population of mixed

parentage" (i. e. one parent native and one parent foreign) "it would still furnish but a moderate ratio of criminals eight (8.42) to each ten thousand." He says (c) (after comparing the foreign-born criminals, and those whose parents were foreign born, with the general population) : " It appears, therefore, that foreign immigration of the character of that before 1890 gave a ratio of criminals in our white population of over ten (10.42) in each ten thousand persons, as against six (6.12) in each ten thousand if there had been no immigration."

In the present article it will be shown: (rf) That as a matter of fact the foreign-born population furnishes only two-thirds as many criminals in proportion as the native born ; that while it is true that the native-born children of foreign-born parents as a whole furnish more criminals proportionately than those whose parents are native born, yet in more than half of the states the showing is in favor of the children of the foreign born. (c) That the combined ratio of prisoners of foreign birth and

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