Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/230

 2l6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

proportion of negroes of this same age in the general negro arrests to the total general negro arrests of the city.

Classification of ages by sex. Classified by sex it appears that the majority of negro criminals are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five years, and that the largest number of these are between the ages of twenty and twenty-five ; also that there is a larger percentage of negro females between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five classed as criminals, to the total number of negro females so classed, than of negro males between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, classed as criminals, to the total number of negro males so classed. We see further that 90 per cent, of the negro females classed as criminals, and 71 per cent, of the males so classed, are between the ages of fifteen and thirty.

This would seem to indicate that negro female criminals become so at an earlier age than negro male criminals, and that criminality among the negro females decreases after the age of twenty-five years. Criminality among the negro males decreases after the age of thirty years. From this we may conclude that the tendency to crime among the negroes decreases with advan- cing age. This same fact is noted in the United States census reports on Crime, Pauperism, and Benevolence, Part I, "Analysis of Statistics," p. 167.*

Marital relations. The writer was unable to ascertain the marital relations of any class of negroes connected with crime, except those coming under the head of general police arrests.

Of the 427 general negro arrests made by the police of the city in January and May of 1897, 60 were of married persons and 367 were of single. The percentage of married persons was 14. Of the total arrests of the city for 1897, 24,608 were of mar- ried and 59,072 were of single ; 29 per cent, of the total arrests of the city were of married persons. This would seem to indicate that the proportion of single negro persons arrested to the total

1 The facts here shown of the tendency to crime at an early age, the proportion of crime between the males and females, and the ages of negro criminals, are found to agree essentially with what is said in the same connection in the United States census report on Crime, Pauperism, and Benevolence, Part I, "Analysis of Statistics," p. 155- 6 7.