Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/45

Rh emphasis on the spread of crime amongst the young. In 1879, 18 per cent. of all persons tried in France were minors, being an increase of 3 per cent. in three years. This increase is greatest in Paris, where more than half the persons arrested are minors. Out of 26,475 prosecuted in one year, nearly 15,000 were under twenty-one years of age, the prosecutions including a large number of the gravest crimes. The proportion of juvenile crime has almost doubled in three years."

This month we received the following intelligence from France: "Owing to the insecurity of the Paris streets, as proved by the alarming number of murderous assaults revealed at the correctional police courts, M. Camescasse, the Prefect of Police, has asked that three hundred men be added to his force of sergents de ville. Even this increase is considered altogether insufficient under existing circumstances."

"The published statistics of suicides in France during the first three quarters of 1881 exhibit once more that increase in the number of cases which has been observable for several years past—a circumstance the more remarkable since the population has during this period remained almost stationary. In 1878 the number was 6,434; in the past year it is calculated that it will exceed 6,500. In the space of thirty years past the proportionate increase is stated to have been about 78 per cent."