More Criminal Prosecutions Per Population In Boston Than Any Other City, States S. B. Warner

"You will probably be astonished to hear that Boston has more criminal prosecutions per population than New York or Chicago or, with very few exceptions, any American, Canadian, or English city," says Sam Bass Warner '12, Professor of Penal Legislation and Administration in his book "Crime and Criminal Statistics in Boston" which will be published in a few days as the second volume in the Harvard Crime Survey series.

"And then if you immediately rush to the possible explanation of a violent post-war crime wave, or a change in the character of the population, you encounter the additional facts that this apparently high rate of crime for Boston has existed for over fifty years; that the Boston courts show a comparatively high proportion of convictions; and that Boston has also the highest ratio of policemen to population."

Professor Warner goes on to point out that these appalling figures do not look as serious if the large number of automobile violations are compared with the number of felonies. If Metropolitan Boston is used as a basis of calculation instead of the city proper, or if arraignments for drunkenness are substituted for arrests.

He points out quite clearly that our alarmists over increasing crime rates must look not to murders, manslaughters, assaults, larcenies, burglaries, etc., or what is commonly thought of as the bulk of serious crimes, but rather to the "regulatory offences," to gambling, family cases, and sex, not to mention the automobile, for what little corroboration they may find.

The crime of drunkenness has a chapter to itself in Professor Warner's study. He demonstrates how prohibition could be called either a success or a failure according to which cities, periods of years, or figures you choose to take. The figures on drunkenness show the greatest diversity of all and the effect upon them of war, prohibition, and poverty can be measured only with the utmost caution.

In the latter part of his book Professor Warner shows that hitherto most information on the administration of crime in Boston and elsewhere has been unsatisfactory.