Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/753

 REVIEWS.

Juvenile Offenders. By W. DOUGLAS MORRISON. New York : D. Appleton & Co., 1897. Pp. 317. #1.50.

THE problem of this work is the problem of habitual crime. The proportion of habitual criminals in the criminal population is con- stantly increasing. This implies the partial failure of the methods of penal law and administration, since the object of these institutions is to prevent the repetition of acts injurious to the community. There are two general classes of offenders, the occasional and the habitual. Young criminals pass from one class to the other during the period of immaturity, and their career is determined by causes over which penal machinery has little control.

Part I deals with the individual and social conditions favorable to juvenile and habitual crime. By a critical statistical analysis it is shown that serious crime is increasing in continental Europe. Eng- land has been generally regarded as an exception, but this impression is based on error. There has, indeed, been a decrease of the number of youth in prisons. But this does not prove an absolute decrease in crime. A milder treatment of young offenders has become common since 1867 ; the average length of sentence has been shortened; fines have been substituted for incarceration ; and private institutions have taken up many offenders who would formerly have gone to prisons. In England and in the United States juvenile crime has increased.

The chapter on the distribution of juvenile crime gives the varia- tions in the various countries of the modern world. The effects of density of population, of city life, and of centralized industry are con- sidered. Pauperism and crime are in inverse ratio, and the causes of this interesting fact are discussed. The influence of sex on juvenile crime is inferred from statistics; 85 per cent, are males and 15 per cent, are females. This fact is due both to the difference in personal traits and to the social environment. Age has an important bearing on the form of crime.

The physical condition of juvenile offenders is carefully studied.

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