Part 2 / Book 2 — CHAPTER III.

SEXUAL CRIMES.

Most authors who treat of the correlation between criminality and economic conditions, have devoted their attention to economic crimes especially, and have had little or nothing to say about sexual crimes. Man’s sexual instincts, they say, have nothing to do with the economic life, they are a factor apart, and accordingly there is no relation between criminal sexuality and economic conditions.

We flatter ourselves that we shall be able to show that their opinion is erroneous, that a relation between sexual criminality and economic conditions does exist, although it is by nature less direct than that between economic crimes and the mode of production.

Having already remarked that the social forms of the sexual life (marriage and prostitution) are, in the last analysis, determined by the mode of production, we will not return to this topic. And it does not fall within the province of this work to speak of the relation of the intensity of the sexual life in general to economic conditions. From history we see that the sexual life plays now a greater, now a smaller part. It would be hard to admit that the causes of these changes are within man and not outside of him, particularly when very evident causes are to be found in the environment. Who does not see that the intensity of the sexual life of the upper classes of Rome of the decadence is explained by the exaggerated luxury, the idle existence of this group, and the dependent position of a part of the women (slaves).

Further the dependent economic position of woman in our present society is also a factor of the increase of the intensity of the sexual life (especially prostitution).

However, it is not this question but sexual criminality upon which we must fix our attention. Here also we must divide the crimes into groups, as they differ too much among themselves to be treated of together. We shall take up in order, then: A. Adultery; B. Rape and indecent assault upon adults; C. Rape and indecent assault upon children.

A. Adultery.

From what we have just said the etiology of this crime is fixed. The only difference between the present and the past is that adultery by the man also is punished in our time—there is no change in the etiology of the crime. It may be said that the fundamental cause of adultery is to be found in the nature of man, then, and that it is thus anthropological and not social. I cannot admit this view of the matter any more than I can believe that the ultimate cause of theft is the necessity of eating in order to live. If the fundamental cause of the offense of which we are treating is to be found in man, it would be present always and everywhere without reference to the environment. Sociology shows however, that this is not so. Up to a certain degree of social development men and women alike have been free in this respect; in other cases it is only the woman who is forced to remain true to her husband; and at times both have been compelled to remain faithful. Consequently, for one who does not consider society as an immovable body, but sees that everything is in motion, the fundamental cause of this crime is to be found in the structure of society itself, which in certain cases, prohibits a man from satisfying his natural inclinations. When the polygamous tendencies are stronger than the pressure of society a crime is committed.

If we consulted only the criminal statistics we should hardly ever meet with adultery. It is unnecessary to add that the penal laws dealing with this matter are so drawn up that a prosecution for adultery almost never takes place; it goes without saying, however, that in reality the offense is very common.

In the first place we must look into the question of the classes of society in which the offense occurs oftenest. Though there are no statistics on the matter I believe that we shall not be far wrong in saying that adultery takes place oftenest in that part of the bourgeoisie that lives in idleness, often also among the proletariat, and least often among the intellectual bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie. In seeking for the causes of this fact we see clearly that they cannot be found in the man himself, for the individuals forming these classes do not differ as to their innate characteristics. Consequently, these causes must be found in the environment; the following being the principal ones.

First. The more marriage is contracted for convenience the greater the danger of adultery. This is one reason why adultery is more common among the “upper ten thousand”, where marriage is often a commercial affair, and why it is less frequent among the intellectual bourgeoisie, in which there are more marriages of inclination.

Second. The more frivolous and trifling the life any class leads, the more frequent will adultery be in it. This is another reason why adultery is frequent among the idle rich, and less frequent in the intellectual class and the petty bourgeoisie.

Third. The more the social causes of marriage are felt in a certain class, the greater the moral aversion to adultery. This is one reason why this offense is found less often among the petty bourgeoisie than in the working class.

Fourth. The greater the number of marriages concluded for purely physical reasons without any intellectual reasons entering in, the more numerous will be the cases of adultery. This applies especially to the proletariat, among whom most of the marriages are contracted from affection, but where, because of lack of culture, there is often no possibility of intellectual communion. When this harmony is lacking it comes about that the difficulties of life, so great in this class, cause an estrangement from which infidelities frequently result.

Finally, let us consider briefly the question of which individuals in the different classes are guilty of adultery. The predisposition to polygamy is not the same for all. In the second place, the sexual instincts are much more intense in some cases than in others. In the third place the environment in which one has lived is not the same as that of another, and opportunities do not occur in the same way for each. The joint action of these causes explains sufficiently why one commits the offense in question and not another.

While finding adultery immoral the adherents of this opinion believe that the law has no right to interfere. Even the persons who do not share their point of view believe that the penal code should cease to concern itself with this crime. Hence it comes, among other things, that the laws are so drawn that prosecutions are very rare. It is probable that adultery will disappear from the list of offenses.

B. Rape and Indecent Assault upon Adults.

First of all it must be remarked that this crime is not the act of a pervert but of a brute. It is important not to forget this since perversion does play a part in the crimes which we shall take up under C. Some authors do not make a distinction between these two kinds of crimes, which prevents their giving a really fundamental treatment of the etiology of them.

France, 1827–1869.

Months. Sexual Crimes Committed Upon Days of Conception 1863–1871.

Adults. Children.

Absolute Figures. % Absolute Figures. % Absolute Figures. %

January 584 7.09 1,106 5.57 2,603 7.84

February 563 6.84 1,041 5.23 2,661 8.02

March 643 7.82 1,366 6.88 2,608 7.85

April 608 7.39 1,700 8.56 2,887 8.69

May 904 10.98 2,175 10.95 3,000 9.21

June 1,043 12.67 2,585 13.03 3,018 9.08

July 860 10.45 2,459 12.42 2,911 8.76

August 794 9.64 2,208 11.13 2,742 8.25

September 653 7.93 1,773 8.93 2,810 8.46

October 523 6.46 1,447 7.29 2,625 7.91

November 514 6.24 983 4.95 2,620 7.89

December 534 6.49 939 5.05 2,665 8.02

The movement of sexual crimes does not tell us much about their etiology. It is plain that the opportunity of committing them occurs much oftener in summer than in winter, and the chance of catching the criminal “in flagrante delicto” is also much greater during the hot months. Even without statistics we should know that the temptation to these acts is greater in warm weather, and further, the rise of temperature towards spring probably increases the sexual tendencies. But all this does not explain the origin of this class of crimes, for if it is true that the sexual tendencies in man are increased by the rise of the temperature toward spring, this affects the sexual life in general, and not the sexual criminality alone (as is shown by the column of the days of conception).

In the same way we learn little of the etiology of these crimes from their movement in the course of the years. In the first part of this work we have given some statistics on this question, which we recapitulate here with additional data.

England.

The author of the English criminal statistics of 1899 fixes attention upon the fact that the maximum of sexual crimes was reached in 1893 and 1894, when the price of wheat was very low (p. 48).

France, 1825–1878.

Italy, 1873–1890.

Dr. Fornasari di Verce says that indecent assaults increase with the improvement in economic conditions, and vice versa (p. 143). On the other hand, Dr. Colajanni proved for the different parts of Italy (1875–1880) that a greater consumption of meat did not lead in most cases (22 out of 35) to an increase in the number of indecent assaults (op. cit., pp. 501–504).

New South Wales, 1882–1891.

As we have seen in Part One (p. 144) Dr. Fornasari di Verce has shown that in this country sexual crimes increase in prosperous years, and vice versa.

Prussia, 1854–1896.

As to this country, Professor von Oettingen gives, for the years 1854–1859 and 1862–1871, some figures which show a slight connection between the price of grain and sexual crimes (Part One, pp. 53, 54). Dr. Müller also shows (see the tables pp. 77, 78 and pp. 80, 81) that economic conditions exercise an influence upon sexual crimes; thus, for example, the years 1857–1859 were characterized by cheap grain and high figures for sexual crimes; the same was true of the years 1863–1866 and 1869. On the contrary the years 1854–1856 and 1861, show a high price for grain and low figures for the crimes in question. There were, however, some exceptions; during the crisis of 1873–74 the sexual crimes did not decrease, and in the following years the correspondence of the curve of these crimes with that of the economic situation is no longer to be noted.

France, 1876–1880.

Civil Status. To 1,000,000 of the Population in Each Group there were Charged with Rape upon Adults

Bachelors 8

Married men 3

Widowers 2

Marriage, then, tends to diminish the number of these crimes. The economic life having, in its turn an influence upon the number of marriages the relation between this life and the crimes in question is clear. If the economic situation of many persons did not prevent their contracting marriage at the period of life indicated by nature, these crimes would be much less frequent. As Dr. Augagneur says: “Our laws and physiological exigencies do not harmonize.”

A second question is, what is the class of the population that commits these crimes? As we have seen, the statistics of Italy and Austria show (see pp. 437, 438) that it is almost exclusively the poor who are guilty of sexual crimes. In Italy 92.1% are indigent or have only the strict necessaries of life; in Austria 91.2% are without fortune, and only 0.2% are well-to-do.

France, 1836–1880.

1836–1840. 1876–1880.

Percentage of Total Number Accused of Rape and Indecent Assault Committed Upon

Adults. Children. Adults. Children.

Engaged in the cultivation of the soil, laborers, farm servants, etc. 38 33 52 39

Workers engaged in handling the products of the soil, iron, wood, etc. 30 26 25 25

Bakers, butchers, cabinet-makers, etc. 5 4 4 4

Tailors, wigmakers, hat-makers 7 8 3 6

Merchants 3 5 3 5

Sailors, carters, porters 6 5 4 3

Domestic servants and keepers of inns, lodging houses and cafés 3 4 3 4

Liberal professions 5 11 4.5 10

Vagrants 3 4 1.5 4

100 100 100 100

France, 1846–1880.

Residence. 1846–1850. 1876–1880.

Absolute Numbers. % Absolute Numbers. %

Rural population 804 74 412 67

Urban population 264 24 160 27

Residence unknown 16 2 38 6

Total 1,084 100 610 100

France, 1875–1884.

Education. Absolute Numbers. % To 100 Persons upon the Conscription Lists (1880).

Unable to read or write 319 28 13.8

Able to read and write 802 71 —

With a higher education 12 1 —

Upon the basis of this table we have the right to say, then, that this crime is almost never committed by persons having more than a primary education.

This fact destroys the theory that the “human beast” exists independent of environment; for if such were the case, this crime would be relatively as frequent among more highly developed persons as among those that are less so. This table proves what is always forgotten by criminal anthropologists, that a man becomes a brute only under certain fixed circumstances, and commits then acts that would be repugnant to him if he lived in a different environment.

One of the consequences of the lower position of woman in our present society is that man considers women as destined to submit to his sexual will. This is especially the case in the lower strata of the population, where the woman is often only a means by which the man may satisfy his desires.

Finally, alcoholism is still to be added as a criminogenous factor. Above (pp. 509 ff.) we have seen that there are many chronic alcoholics among the authors of these crimes; in Germany 23.3% and 20.5%, in France 51.5% and 55.7%, in the Netherlands 10.84%, and in Wurtemberg 36.3%.

England.

Austria, 1896–1897.

France.

Netherlands.

Sweden.

Switzerland, 1892–1896.

To sum up, we see that the causes of these crimes are the economic condition which prevents some individuals from marrying at the natural age, the inferior social position of woman, alcoholism, and above all the sexual demoralization and lack of civilization in the lowest strata of society.

It is plain that not all the individuals who live in this environment are guilty of the crimes in question. The sexual instincts do not have equal force at all ages, nor with all individuals. There are individuals who have very pronounced sexual propensities, others who are almost indifferent in this respect, and between the two extremes lies the great majority. It is only for the first class that the danger of a crime against morals is great, for the others it is less so. If the opportunity (rape is almost always an “occasional” crime) presents itself to persons already predisposed, the moral check to restrain them is lacking. If they had lived in another environment, this act would be repugnant to them, as statistics prove; for this crime is not committed by persons of the other classes, although there are naturally proportionally more persons with strong sexual instincts among them. The opportunity to commit these crimes is happily not very frequent. As Voltaire has expressed it, “Rape is a crime as hard to prove as it is to commit.”

C. Rape and Indecent Assault upon Children.

An examination of the etiology of these crimes shows that in great part the individuals who are guilty of them belong to the same category of criminals as those who commit sexual crimes upon adults. If they seduce or outrage a child and not a woman it is from accidental reasons (opportunity, lack of bodily strength, etc.); they are brutes who wish to satisfy their sexual instincts at any price; they are not, however, perverts. Although there is a quantitative difference between the man who violates an adult and one who commits this act upon a child (the latter being grosser and more egoistic than the former), there is no qualitative difference between the two so far as the majority of the criminals of whom we are speaking are concerned. We should only repeat ourselves if we treated of the etiology of these crimes more fully.

France, 1876–1880.

Civil Status. To 1,000,000 of the Population of Each Group there were Arraigned For Rape Upon

Adults. Children.

Bachelors 8 37

Married men 3 25

Widowers 3 50

France, 1876–1880.

Residence. Rape and Indecent Assault Upon

Adults. Children.

% %

Rural 67 53

Urban 27 43

Unknown 6 4

It appears from an examination of these data that sexual crimes upon children and those upon adults have, in part a different etiology. Many sexual crimes upon children are committed by persons who could also satisfy their desires with adults, but abuse children instead. These, then, are cases of sexual perverts.