Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/229

 CRIME AMONG THE NEGROES OF CHICAGO 21$

percentage of arrests of females from twenty-five to thirty being 29 per cent., males 22 per cent. ; after thirty years of age the proportion of arrests is greater among the males than among the females. Twenty-four per cent, of the male arrests were of persons over thirty years of age, 19 per cent, of the female arrests were of persons above that age.

Ages of negro criminals. The persons whose ages we have been considering come under the head of general police arrests, i. e., those arrested for all causes. We will now notice those classed as criminals.

The ages here given are of persons who have been recorded in the Bureau of Identification of Criminals, and are therefore said to belong to the criminal class. The records of 217 negro persons were examined; 120 were males and 97 were females. The average age of these 217 negro persons was twenty-four years; average age of males was 25.74; females, 22.63. From a classification of ages it appears that the majority of negro per- sons classed as criminals are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five years ; that the largest proportion of persons is between the ages of twenty and twenty-five. Taking the per- centages, we see that 64 per cent, are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five years, and that 43 per cent, are between the ages of twenty and twenty-five years, and that only 36 per cent, are above twenty-five years of age.

From the classification of ages under general negro arrests we see that 52 per cent, of the negro arrests were of persons between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five years, 35 per cent, between the ages of twenty and twenty-five years, and 48 per cent, beyond the age of twenty-five years. From the ages under general arrests we have seen that the average age of negro per- sons thus arrested was twenty-six years ; the average age of males was 25.29 years, females 26.70 years. From the classification just considered we see that the average age of negro persons classed as criminals was twenty-four, males 25.74, females 22.63 years. This would seem to indicate that the proportion of negro persons, between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five years, classed as criminals, to the total number so classed, is greater than the