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THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR WILLIAM JOYNSONHICKS, BART., M.P., HIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT.

Sir,

I have the honour to submit the Criminal Statistics of England and Wales for the year 1925 containing the statistics relative to crime and criminal proceedings.

The Tables are in the same form as in the volume for the preceding year.

The Introduction has been prepared by Mr. Arthur Locke, C.B.E., of the Criminal Division of this Office.

Home Office,

February, 1927.

I am
Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

JOHN ANDERSON.

mm

The numbers of the Parliamentary Papers containing the previous volumes of the Criminal Statistics since the revision in 1892 are as follows:

The volume for 1893 contains the Principal Report of the Criminal Statistics Committee, and that for 1898 a Supplementary Report.

From 1805 to 1856 Tables of Trials at Assizes and Quarter Sessions were printed annually as Parliamentary Papers. From 1857 to 1892 the Criminal Statistics formed part of the annual volume of "Judicial Statistics."

This Volume contains Comparative Tables, giving figures of crime since 1899, as well as Annual Tables giving in more detail the figures for 1925. The Comparative Tables are of special interest, as they may afford means of judging whether crime is increasing, and whether crime is being dealt with aright. For this purpose, "crime" may be taken to include all indictable offences, a full list of which appears at page 182. A short view in these matters is often misleading, so attention is drawn first to the following chart, the black line in which shows, for the whole period since 1857, the annual numbers of indictable offences known to the police, while the dotted line, for known offences of dishonesty, shows how large and constant the proportion of offences of that character is to the whole body of serious crime. The figures at the side indicate the numbers of offences, in thousands.

The actual number of indictable offences known to the police in 1857, namely 91,671, was very nearly the same as the average annual number throughout the whole period, namely 90,943, which again differs little from the average annual number since 1882, namely 91,298. It may be said therefore that in recent times the "normal" number of indictable offences has been round about 90,000. The chart shows, however, that there have been remarkable fluctuations. The actual numbers suggest an

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alarming and recent increase in crime :--91,671 indictable offences known to the police in 1857; 76,025 in 1899; 105,279 in 1908; 113,986 in 1925, which on the basis of actual numbers appears to be the worst year of all.

The actual numbers, however, are not safe guides. Since 1857 the numbers and efficiency of the police have increased and the proportion of the offences committed that becomes known to the police is probably much greater now, and moreover, the estimated population in 1857 was only 19,256,516, whereas in 1925 it was 38,890,000. The proportions that the indictable offences known to the police have borne to every 100,000 of the estimated population are far safer guides. The proportion per 100,000 throughout the whole period was 313; for the more modern period since 1882 it was only 278; for individual years the proportion per 100,000 of the population was 476 in 1857; 239 in 1899; 298 in 1908; 293 in 1925.

On this basis the crime-rate has fallen greatly since 1857, and as regards the period since 1899, the worst year is not 1925, but 1908.

Few will doubt that the main influences causing fluctuations in this latter period were the Boer War and the Great War. In this connection it may be pointed out, first, that in 1925, 6 years after the Great War, the proportion of serious crime to population-293-was not so high as it was 6 years after the Boer War-298; and, secondly, that 6 years after the Boer War, the tide turned, and the figures of indictable offences known to the police began to fall.

As regards crimes of violence, the figures of known homicides since 1857, including infanticide and deaths due to illegal operations, are too low to be shown in the chart, but they are so remarkable that their general effect will be stated, first premising that the English figures of crimes of this character probably approximate as closely to absolute completeness as any in the world. Many people will be surprised to learn that whereas in 1857, with an estimated population of 19,256,516, the known homicides numbered 242, in 1925, with an estimated population of 38,890,000, the known homicides numbered only 318.

Other crimes of violence against the person (excluding sexual offences) usually numbered round about 1,600 annually from 1857 to 1913, with a tendency to diminish; the total for 1925 was only 1,177.

Having taken a long view, over the whole period from 1857 to 1925, of the figures of indictable offences known to the police, the figures for the shorter period from the low-water year 1899 to 1925 may now be considered in more detail. This period is the period covered by the Comparative Tables in this Volume, and it is as well to begin with 1899, for the efforts of all who are in any way concerned to see that crime is prevented or, when it cannot be prevented, adequately dealt with, should be directed, first, to securing a speedy return to the best standard recorded, and then to improving even upon that standard.

To take first the most serious crime, murder, from 1899 to 1903 the annual average number of murders known to the police was 148; in 1925 the number was 160, an increase of 12; for manslaughter the figures