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TABLE 10.-Distribution of classes of crime: Massachusetts penal institutions, Oct. 1, 1908, to Sept. 30, 1909-Continued.

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Without entering into a detailed analysis, it may be observed that the tendency of second-generation groups to differ in character of criminality from the corresponding immigrant groups is in the direction of the group native-born of native father. Of the five secondgeneration groups, one-the Irish-exhibits a constant adherence to this rule, while the others at some point fail to follow it.

RACES AND NATIONALITIES.

The immigrant groups in the several sets of data considered in this report are composed of various races and these ethnic factors apparently have a marked effect on the character of immigrant criminality. It is therefore highly important that the various immigrant races be individually compared with the American-born.

Unfortunately, aside from the 12,853 cases of aliens in penal institutions, only 2,206 of the cases treated in this report show the race of the offender. Aliens in penal institutions can not be compared with native offenders, because in the enumeration made by the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization the cases of native persons were not recorded. The 2,206 convictions in the New York court of general sessions must therefore form the basis of any comparison of foreign races with persons of American birth. This number is too small to be of value as indicating the nature of the crimes of any race, but these cases are the first to be recorded by race in the United States and are therefore of interest. It is possible, however, to approximate a racial classification, for in all the other sets of data obtained offenders are shown either by the country of their birth or by nationality. The latter term is that employed by the Chicago police department and is a modification of the former, in that geographic divisions rather than political entities are made the basis of classification. For convenience, therefore, "nationality" is the term used in the discussion of the statistics to indicate the country of birth. As in the case of native and immigrant offenders considered without reference to racial factors, it is impossible, because of the widely

different character of the data obtained from the several sources, to combine all cases into a composite group. Each set of data must be separately analyzed and its purely local significance borne in mind. Each set is a unit, unrelated to any other, and represents merely a certain definite number of cases.

NEW YORK CITY MAGISTRATES' COURTS, 1901 To 1908.

The most comprehensive records of crime in the city of New York are those of the city magistrates', or police, courts. Of these there are two divisions, the first covering the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, the second the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond, and each division consists of several different courts. A vast number of cases come before these courts each year and cover the greater part of the city's detected criminality.

The records of both divisions of the courts for the calendar years from 1901 to 1908, inclusive, have been gathered into a single compilation, thus giving a summary of criminal cases for these eight years. In arranging the records for analysis, only those cases have been used where the accused person was committed to a reformatory or other institution as guilty of the offense charged or held for further trial by a higher court. Thus the tables include only cases in which guilt was evident or highly probable.

The records of the city magistrates' courts do not show the race of the offender; only his country of birth. In the discussion of these records, therefore, country of birth, or nationality, must be the basis of comparison. Of the groups of foreign-born offenders, those from seven countries only are clearly marked in the records. The distribution of the several classes of crime among these nationalities and among Americans is shown in the following table.

TABLE 11.-Distribution of classes of crime: New York City magistrates' courts, 1901

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• The records of the night courts, the court of special sessions, and the children's courts have not been

Included in this compilation.

Includes" Other countries."

TABLE 11.-Distribution of classes of crime: New York City magistrates' courts, 1901 to 1908-Continued.

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From this table it appears that one class of crime plays a larger part in the criminality of American-born persons than in that of any nationality group of immigrants. This is the class of offenses designated as "gainful." Of the total number of offenses committed by persons born in the United States, 10.1 per cent were of this character. The highest percentage which the gainful offenses formed of the total crimes of any foreign nationality is 8.3, that being their percentage of the crimes of immigrant offenders born in Russia. The proportion which such offenses formed of the total crimes of persons born in England is nearly as large, being 8.1 per cent. Next in rank is the percentage of persons born in Germany, 7.7, and following this are the percentages of persons born in Italy, 6.4, those born in Scotland, 5.5, those born in Ireland, 4.4, and those born in France, whose percentage of 4.3 is least of the eight nationality groups shown.

Offenses of personal violence, against public policy, and against chastity formed larger proportions of the total criminality of various groups of immigrant offenders than of that of the American-born.

Two of the immigrant groups had larger percentages of offenses of personal violence than the group of persons born in the United States. These two immigrant nationalities are the Italian, of whose crimes those of personal violence formed 7.3 per cent, and the German, 4.3 per cent of whose offenses were of this nature. All other immigrant groups had smaller proportions of such crimes than the native-born, of whose total offenses they formed 3.9 per cent.

Of offenses against public policy, no nationality had a smaller proportion than the American, 84.9 per cent of whose crimes were of this character. With the exception of the Italian, whose percentage is the same as that of the American-born group, all of the foreign nationalities had larger proportions. The highest percentage is that of the Scotch, 91.3 per cent of whose offenses were against public policy. This, however, is only slightly in excess of that of the Irish, the latter being 91.2 per cent.

Four of the seven foreign nationalities had larger proportions of offenses against chastity than the American. These are the French

with 4.1 per cent, the Germans with 1.2 per cent, the Russians with 0.9 per cent, and the Italians with 0.8 per cent of their crimes composed of such offenses. The Irish and Scotch percentages are less than any others, the former being 0.2 and the latter 0.3. It is noteworthy that the four English-speaking nationalities-the American, English, Irish, and Scotch-were exceeded in relative frequency of offenses against chastity by each of the four non-English-speaking nationalities.

Although the gainful offenses as a whole were more in evidence among the crimes of Americans, as shown in these records, than among the crimes of any immigrant nationality, there were four nationalities which had larger percentages than the American of individual gainful offenses. In the following summary table these stand out clearly:

TABLE 12.-Relative frequency of gainful offenses: New York City magistrates' courts,

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This table shows that while burglary, larceny and receiving stolen property, and robbery were more common among the crimes of Americans than among those of immigrants, blackmail and extortion and forgery and fraud occurred in greater proportion among the offenses of certain immigrant nationalities. Of blackmail and extortion the Italian, French, and English immigrant offenders, and of forgery and fraud the English and German, had larger percentages than the American.

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Five of the seven immigrant groups exceeded the American in the proportion of one or more of the offenses of personal violence, as is shown in the following table:

TABLE 13.-Relative frequency of offenses of personal violence: New York City magistrates' courts, 1901 to 1908.

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The five immigrant groups whose percentages of one or more offenses exceeded the American were the English, French, German, Italian, and Russian. Of these the Italian exceeded not only the American but all other nationalities in percentage of every offense of personal violence.

Of some one or more offenses against public policy every immigrant group had a larger percentage than the American. Of these offenses in the aggregate every nationality except the Italian exceeded the American in percentage. These facts are shown in detail in the table following.

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