CHAPTER II POVERTY, DESTITUTION, OVERCROWDING, AND CRIME

The majority of persons in prison there because of their poverty--Poverty and drink--Poverty and petty offences-- Poverty and thrift--Poverty and destitution--Case of theft from destitution--Poverty and vagrancy--Unemployment and beggary--Formation of professional offenders--The case of the old--The degradation of the unemployed to unemployability--No ratio between the amount of poverty alone and the amount of crime--A definite ratio between density of population and crime--Slum life--Overcrowding-- Cases of destitution and overcrowding--Overcrowding and decency--Poverty and overcrowding in relation to offences against the person--The poor and officials--The absence of opportunity for rational recreation--The migratory character of the population--The multiplication of laws and of penalties--Transgressions due to ignorance and to inability to conform--Contrast between city and country administration--Case of petty offender--Treatment induces further offences--The city the hiding-place of the professional criminal--Crime largely a by-product of city life 67-94