Part 1 — CHAPTER III. THE ITALIAN SCHOOL.1 (continued 2)

Not only does poverty predispose to crime, but it also furnishes the motives for it. Leading to alcoholism it is the cause of violent crimes; it drives persons who cannot find work to vagrancy and mendicity, which in their turn are the preparatory school for greater crimes; it puts the great number of those who cannot provide honestly for their needs to the necessity of stealing. And when these factors act upon a man already predisposed, they even lead as far as homicide.

In the following table the different Italian districts, as well as the crimes committed, have been grouped about their average figures.

Wealth. Crimes.

(3.333) Latium VII —

— VI —

— V —

(2.747) Piedmont-Liguria IV —

(2.400) Lombardy III —

— II —

(2.164) Tuscany I Lombardy (649)

Tuscany (710)

Piedmont-Liguria (732)

Emilia (749)

Marches-Umbria (774)

(1.935) Venice Average. Venice (857)

(1.876) Kingdom Kingdom (926)

(1.762) Emilia Sicily (1021)

— 1st Naples (1150)

(1.471) Sicily 2d Sardinia (1440)

(1.333) Naples

(1.227) Marches-Umbria 3d —

Sardinia 4th Latium (1797)

According to the author it appears from this table that, with the exception of Latium, the districts with wealth above the average have a number of crimes below the average. Nevertheless the regions with a figure for wealth above the average, i.e. Piedmont-Liguria, Lombardy, and Latium, show a greater number of crimes than one would expect, while Sicily, Naples, Marches-Umbria, and Sardinia show lower figures for crime than would be supposed. This contradiction is only apparent, according to the author, and is to be explained as follows: first, because where there is wealth there is also poverty and frequent opportunities to steal; second, because dangerous individuals migrate less to districts where there is less wealth; third, because, as John Stuart Mill says, it results from the social conditions of our day that the education of the poor is nil and that of the rich bad.

The second chapter, having as its title, “Il fattore economico e la delinquenza.—Dinamica”, contains some data upon the trend of criminality in the period in question. Criminality in general is increasing; serious crimes remain nearly stationary, while less serious crimes increase. As Ferri observes, criminality is decreasing, even in Italy, as to its intensity and violence, but increasing as to its extent.

Finally, the author considers the influence of emigration. It is chiefly the crimes against property that feel the favorable effects of it, as murder does among crimes against persons. The cause of this favorable influence is easily explained. Emigration removes a number of persons who, not having the means of existence, would easily become criminals.

The consequences of agricultural vicissitudes are as follows: the years of abundant harvests show a decrease in criminality, bad years, on the contrary, an increase; good vintages, however, lead to the same result. It is chiefly crimes against property (especially rural thefts) that yield to the influence of the degree of the abundance of the harvest; while among crimes against persons it is principally assaults that show the effect of the character of the crops. It is plain that the agricultural class is that which especially shows the effect of a bad harvest. During the years 1887–1889 the proportion of the farming class among those convicted rose from 35.3% to 37.8% and 38.2%.

The effect of the fluctuation of the price of food is the following: criminality in general shows the influence of it greatly. When prices fall crime diminishes, and vice versa. This is more clearly to be seen in crimes against property. Crimes against persons increase especially when the price of wine is low, and vice versa. When a fall in the price of food coincides with a fall in the price of wine, the increase of crimes against persons is great.

According to Dr. Fornasari di Verce the cause of the increase of crimes against persons in the case of low food prices is not to be found in the improved nutrition that results, but in the greater consumption of alcohol. The other crimes feel the effect of the fluctuations in the price of provisions less.

The author then takes up manufacturing. (As a consequence of the defectiveness of the official statistics the data are incomplete.) During the period of which the author speaks, manufacturing increased enormously, and crime in general increased also. The serious forms, however, decreased while the less serious ones increased. Industrial crises bring an increase chiefly of crimes against persons.

The condition of the working-people. According to the author it would be of the highest importance to establish for each year the number of industrial workers. For this has a greater importance for criminality than the price of food or the rate of wages. In default of official data such an investigation cannot take place, and he has to limit himself to an examination of wages. With some few exceptions these wages increased about 35% during the period 1873–1889. However, to obtain a clearer picture of the condition of the working-class, the author has combined the fluctuation of wages with those of the price of grain; that is, he has made a calculation of the number of hours each man has had to work to get 100 kilograms of grain.

After having called attention to the fact that the average wage of the Italian workman is lower than in other industrial countries, the author gives the following results of his researches: the influence of the fluctuation of wages upon crime in general is less than, and almost always subordinated to, that of the fluctuation of food-prices. However, it must not be forgotten here that wages do not always represent exactly the condition of the majority of the proletariat. With some few exceptions, all crimes against property decrease when wages rise (in combination with the price of grain). This influence is not noted in commercial crimes and counterfeiting. Crimes against persons increase a little when wages rise; but when this rise coincides with a low price of wine, they increase considerably.

The influence of strikes is exclusively limited to the crime of rebellion.

From the investigation into criminality and commercial occurrences we learn that fraudulent bankruptcy, and also forgery in great measure, are almost entirely independent of economic occurrences; and the fluctuations of the number of commercial crimes, in so far as they are not influenced by other economic facts, are explained in great part by commercial occurrences.

Financial occurrences (credit and deposits) do not make themselves felt in criminality in general, but in crimes against property and commercial crimes.

The author concludes finally from the increase shown by private fortunes and the rise in wages, that there is a correlation of these phenomena with a decrease of certain serious forms of crime.

The results of the study are summarized in the following table:

According to the author it follows from his investigation, that the economic factors fill a very important place in the etiology of crime, but that all crime is not to be explained by that means. He is of the opinion that if we are to combat crime effectively we must make use of the “penal substitutes” recommended by Professor Ferri.

The author treats the influence of economic occurrences upon criminality in Great Britain and Ireland in the same way. Here are his results:

CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. Subject to the Influence of Economic Occurrences and varying with Them. Inversely. Much. { Crimes against property without violence.

Moderately. { Crimes against property with violence.

Little. Crimes against property with premeditated destruction.

Crimes other than those named above and those against persons and against the currency.

Directly. { Crimes over which the Influence of Alcohol is Predominant. { Crimes against persons.

Not subject to the Influence of Economic Occurrences. Not at All. { Misdemeanors and contraventions.

Only Slightly. { Forgery and counterfeiting.

His investigation gives the following results for New South Wales:

CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. Subject to the Influence of Economic Occurrences and varying with Them. Inversely. Much. 1. Theft and receiving stolen goods.

2. Petty larceny.

3. Horse-stealing.

Moderately. 4. Minor offenses against property.

5. Domiciliary thefts.

6. Sheep-stealing.

7. Forgery.

Little. { 8. Cattle-stealing.

Crimes and Misdemeanors over which the Influence of Alcohol is Predominant. 9. Murder.

10. Arson.

11. Homicide.

12. Assaults.

13. Extortion.

14. Robbery.

15. Other minor offenses.

Directly. I. Offenses against public decency.

II. Offenses against morals (homosexuality).

III. Offenses against morals.

IV. Minor offenses against persons.

Not subject to the Influence of Economic Occurrences. A. Blackmail and cheating.

B. Perjury.

—It is incontestable that the researches of Dr. Fornasari di Verce must be placed in the front rank of the works that show the correctness of the thesis that the economic factors are the most important factors of criminality. An objection may be made, however, that the question has been conceived in too mechanical a fashion, in consequence of the exclusive use of the statistical method. He seeks the correlation between criminality and each economic phenomenon separately, in place of that of the ensemble of these phenomena. For the economic life does not exist in reality as separated and isolated parts, but forms a great whole, a compact mass, of which the parts fit in together. When an important economic occurrence takes place, in case the expected effect upon crime is not observed, we must not be too quick to say that it has no importance for criminality, for it may be that it is neutralized by something else.

With this remark is connected a final objection. The author has not proved the truth of his conclusion that criminality cannot be explained exclusively by means of economic conditions. For, although his researches include very important economic factors, the author leaves out many economic factors and, with one exception (the degenerating influence of poverty), the numerous consequences of economic conditions, which are of the highest importance for the question in hand. In other words the author has not called attention to the fact that we live under an economic system of a comparatively recent date, having peculiar characteristics that are of great significance for criminality. He has indicated some very important consequences of the system, but he has not analyzed the system itself.

I am of the opinion that the work that I have been treating, and which has a great value for the subject, shows that economic conditions are of great importance for criminality. However, it does not prove that this influence is not greater than is shown by statistics.—

VI.

A. Niceforo.

In the first part of his study, “Criminalità e condizioni economiche in Sicilia”, the author calls attention to the fact that Sicily is one of the Italian districts where crime is greatest and is increasing most rapidly. One could draw upon the map lines enclosing a definite criminal zone, taking in the provinces of Caltanissetta, Girgenti, and Catania. This zone might, in its turn, be divided into two others, one of which would give a high figure for robberies and homicides, and the other chiefly for crimes against property and against morals.

The author divides the economic causes into direct and indirect. In speaking of direct factors he treats successively:

a. Large real-estate holdings. The landed proprietor rents his lands to the “gabelletto”, who in turn sublets them to the laborers. This system exhausts the latter. The proprietor rids himself of all expense by charging it to the “gabelletto”, and makes his profit; the “gabelletto” does the same by the laborer and makes his profit. The latter is always the person that suffers. Then the “gabelletto” advances the necessary provisions to the laborer until the harvest comes in; but since he does so at a high rate, the laborer is bowed down by the burden of his debts. In consequence of this system the agricultural population is ill-nourished and degenerate. The consequences of this system as it affects criminality are apparent. In the province of Caltanissetta, where large land-holdings are the rule, crimes against property, and especially rural thefts, cattle-stealing, vagrancy, etc., are the most numerous.

b. Small holdings. However, it is not only the agricultural population dependent upon great property-holders that lives in poverty, for the small farmers also have a hard life. They raise chiefly grapes and citrous fruits. The price of citrous fruits has fallen greatly through overproduction and foreign competition. Wine also has gone down in price, and the cultivators have had enormous losses from phylloxera besides. Consequently the small farmers are crushed with debts; failures are the order of the day; their situation, then, is most unfortunate. But that of the non-property-holders is still worse if possible. For the small holder also often rents his land to others, and from this follows a kind of “sweating-system.”

At the end of these observations the author gives, in the following table, the movement of some prices in relation to criminality:

Years. Price of Wheat per 1000 Kilos. Price of Wine per Hectolitre. (Sicily.) Price of Meat per Kilo. (Sicily.) Homicides Prosecuted. Robberies, Extortion, Blackmail.

1875 27.42 13.00 3.09 — 658

1876 28.78 21.62 2.91 — 1,039

1877 33.66 30.38 2.98 — 777

1878 31.43 29.04 2.89 — 1,110

1879 31.35 19.03 2.80 — 1,138

1880 32.27 29.65 2.74 1,063 829

1881 26.36 30.92 2.74 1,001 708

1882 20.42 28.35 2.80 938 560

1883 23.11 22.11 2.75 943 419

1884 21.52 17.95 2.77 949 340

1885 21.24 31.84 2.76 822 330

1886 21.28 35.63 2.42 859 418

1887 21.48 15.66 2.44 863 446

1888 21.50 11.85 2.46 899 485

1889 22.83 15.06 2.40 865 478

1890 22.63 22.07 2.46 869 547

1891 24.60 16.92 2.77 966 710

1892 24.32 14.32 2.87 1,117 677

1893 21.08 15.76 2.95 1,066 902

1894 18.77 18.38 2.98 — —

1895 20.30 18.42 2.75 — —

c. The mining zone. The production of sulphur, formerly of great importance, when Sicily was the principal source of supply for Europe and America, has decreased greatly now that sulphur is manufactured from chemical products. The condition of the miners is pitiful. The mines are often exploited by middle-men, which makes the condition of the laborers worse. Degeneracy has consequently taken on enormous proportions. When we compare the change in wages with the number of thefts, we see that thefts decrease when wages rise, and vice versa, and that the price of grain also influences criminality. It is the provinces of Sicily where the sulphur mines are found that give the highest figures for criminality in general, and homicide in particular.

d. The class-conflict. The property owners, whose economic position is already very influential, also control the political forces, and consequently the case of those who have nothing is made much worse. Taxes, indirect for the most part, weigh most heavily upon the poor; public property is exploited for the benefit of the rich, etc., etc. Hence it follows that in the districts where the non-possessors are unconsciously struggling against the possessors, this strife of classes engenders class-hatred, and consequent crimes.

In the last part of his study the author speaks of indirect economic factors, among which he includes:

a. The increasing decline in the altruistic feelings. The miner and the laborer, both ill-nourished, humiliated, and despised, dwelling in miserable hovels, are pariahs far removed from any feeling for their fellow men.

b. Organic degeneracy. As a consequence of the economic conditions named, degeneracy is always increasing more and more among the poor, especially among the miners. This degeneracy becomes in its turn a factor of criminality, since it predisposes individuals to crime.

See also: Virgilio Rossi: “Influence de la température et de l’alimentation sur la criminalité en Italie, de 1875 à 1883” (“Rapport Ier Congrès d’Anthropologie Criminelle. Actes”, pp. 295 ff.); N. Pinsero: “Miseria e Delitto” (“Scuola Positiva”, 1898).