No. 607.
Mr. Andrews to Mr. Fish.
Stockholm, July 16, 1875. (Received August 7.)
Sir: I have the honor to submit a few statistics of crime and prisons.
The criminal jurisprudence of Sweden, being much like the continental system, differs of course in many respects from that of the United States. There is no trial by jury, except in cases involving the liberty of the press. The grand jury does not exist. The accused in all cases is liable to be cross-examined by the judge. Although the law declares that the testimony of a single witness furnishes but half proof of guilt—a second witness or circumstances being required for the other half—yet it happens that only eleven per cent. of all who are arraigned for crime get acquitted. This certainty of justice deprives people of any pretext for taking cases out of the hands of the courts; consequently, “lynch law” has been unpracticed for many generations. There is a feeling beginning to show itself in the country that the law in some small cases of larceny is unduly severe. For stealing hay or straw from a field, fruit from an orchard, vegetables from a garden, even though the article may be of slight value, a person is liable, in the discretion of the judge, to imprisonment at hard labor for one year. Though they are exceptional, cases actually occur where a person convicted of four repeated offenses of larceny, unattended with house-breaking or other aggravated circumstance, and where the aggregate value of the property stolen does not exceed 18 kronor, ($4.80,) undergoes imprisonment, at labor, in the aggregate from nine to eighteen years, and a loss of political rights possibly for life.
The cost of such a convict to the State for eighteen years would be about 4,000 kronor. In cases of larceny and felony, the convict, besides imprisonment, is liable to be deprived of “citizen confidence.” This part of the sentence makes a person technically disreputable, and disqualifies him from holding any public office and from voting. A person convicted a second time of stealing property of upward of fifteen kronor ($4) in value, is liable, in the discretion of the judge, to be politically disqualified for life. The minimum period of disqualification was in 1872 reduced from five years to one year. On the other hand, some punishments seem characterized by mildness. A mother who murders her illegitimate infant is only liable to be punished by imprisonment, with labor, for from four to ten years.
The crime of rape is punishable by imprisonment and labor from six to ten years. Capital punishment is very seldom resorted to. There has been but one execution in several years, and that was in the case of a convict who had killed a prison-officer. The method of execution is by beheading. The penitentiaries of Sweden compare favorably with those of any other country in Europe; and the provincial or county prisons, on the solitary-cell principle, for convicts undergoing sentences of not exceeding two years, are spacious, cleanly, and well administered. The criminal statistics of Sweden are published annually in two official reports; one, and the more complete, by the department of justice; the other, by the administration of prisons. The former is a quarto document of 150 pages, the latter of 50 pages. From the first-mentioned report, for the year 1872, it appears that the whole number of persons convicted of offenses in that year, including cases in the military courts, was 35,142, of whom 2,942 were females. The number of offenses [Page 1264] of all sorts of which persons were convicted was 39,210. Of these, 13,028, or 36½ per cent., were violations of police regulations, laws concerning the public economy, or the like. The number of convictions of willful murder was 23; of homicide, 54; of infanticide, 38; of robbery, including burglary, 13; of perjury, 27; of forgery, 101; of adultery, 69; of mockery of religion, 28; of assault and battery, 2,007; of larceny of all sorts, 1,948; of drunkenness, 11,748. The whole number of the more felonious, or, as the report describes, them, coarser crimes, was 1,830, being one case to every 2,322 inhabitants of the country. [The population of Sweden in 1873 was 4,297,972.]
In respect to the literary capacity of those convicted of this last-mentioned class of crimes, forty-three per cent. could read and write, fifty-four per cent. could read but not write, and only three per cent. could neither read nor write. Only one, however, of the whole number was well educated. [The opponents of popular education, and especially the opponents of compulsory education, make a great handle of such large percentages of criminals who can read or write. Of course there is a wide difference between education in its proper acceptation and the capacity barely to read and write.] Forty per cent. of those convicted of the more felonious offenses had previously undergone punishment for crime. Convictions for all offenses, including drunkenness, violations of ordinances, &c., reached their highest number during the five years 1855–1859, a period of business depression, when they averaged, annually, 43,016, which was a little more than double the average during the five years 1830–1834. During .the five years 1865–1869, the annual average number of convictions was 35,117. The report for the year 1872 shows some increase of crime over the immediately preceding years. With regard to drunkenness, it may be said that the law is not strictly enforced. The statistician of the department of justice, Mr. Gyllenskjöld, in summing up the chief causes of crime, declares them to be “vicious education, habitual in-rooted vice from childhood, a vagrant and idle manner of living, weak intellect, and intemperance.”
Considering how much the welfare of society everywhere depends on the culture of the mother, I shall not omit here to state that the public provision in Sweden for the education of females remains much inferior to what is provided for males.
The latest prison-report is for the year 1873. From this it appears that the average number of convicts in all the prisons during that year was 4,906, or 486 less than in 1872.
There are in all forty-eight prisons and jails. In the county or provincial prisons and jails there are 2,255 light cells for solitary confinement and work, and 97 dark cells. The average cost of the prison-ration per day, including all of the prisons, was seven cents and three mills, coin; which was half a cent more than it cost the previous year. The prison-expenses amounted in 1873 to 1,774.861 kronor.* The income from convict-labor was 156,103 kronor, besides labor on the fortifications, which the state derived, of the value of 25,867 kronor. During the year, 71 convicts partook of the sacrament for the first time, all of the others, as it would seem, having previously done so, that religious rite being in this country a matter of course. The number of persons imprisoned for debt was only ten, whereas in 1864 the number was 327. At the close of the year 1873 there were in the different prisons 661 convicts sentenced for life; 1,836 sentenced for a less period, but for over two years; and 790 for a period not exceeding two years, the last mentioned being in [Page 1265] solitary cells. Of 198 men and 35 women sentenced in 1873 for the second offense of larceny, 186 men and 32 women had before undergone punishment in cell for the first offense of larceny. The aggregate number of days that all of the prisoners were on bread and water was 7,002.
The latest official report published on the criminal statistics of Norway is for the year 1871. From this it appears that the number of persons arraigned for so called “justice offenses” before the civil and mixed, civil-military tribunals, in 1871, and not including cases before the local courts of summary jurisdiction, was 3,612, of whom 297 were persons of foreign birth. The aggregate number of offenses with which they were charged was 2,574. The number of persons condemned to punishment for such offenses, whether arraigned that year or previously, was 3,240. The numbers convicted of some of the more serious offenses were as follows: Offense against religion, 1; against public dignity and authority, 129; counterfeiting, 10; perjury, 4; murder, I; manslaughter, 6; infanticide, 17; bodily injury, 210; libel, 2; rape, 8; incest, 15; bigamy, 1; adultery, 32; unlawful cohabitation, 205; seduction, 11; robbery,2; fraud or cheating, 139; larceny, 1992; forgery, 64; arson, 10; damage to property, 24, &c. Only one convict was sentenced to capital punishment.
The following were the periods of imprisonment to which convicts were sentenced, and the number of convicts as to each period: For life, 2; for over nine years, 12; from six to nine years, 19; five to six years, 9; four to five years, 38; three to four years, 76; two to three years, 65; one to two years, 144; and from six months to one year, 381; besides, in some cases, fines. For the violation of so-called police laws, relating to the production of whisky, the sale of intoxicating drinks, to licenses, schools, militia, fisheries and forests, begging, drunkenness, &c., 1,105 persons were arraigned and were convicted or made settlement, and 12,561 made settlement under the amicable adjustment system, without being arraigned; in all, 13,666. Add to this number the before-mentioned 3,240 sentenced for “justice” violations, and 39 convicted in courts-martial, and we have the number of 16,945 persons who in 1871 were convicted, imprisoned, or fined under the penal laws. In course of the same year the number of persons who paid fines on account of offenses was 10,448; of whom 9,991 paid a fine under the sum of ten “specie” dollars. The number who underwent imprisonment in the local jails for inability or refusal to pay a fine was 2,519. As to 339 persons the fine was remitted; as to 3,952 the fine remained unsatisfied, making in all 17,258 persons who during the year were liable to the payment of a fine.
In the eight prisons for the more serious offenses there were confined in course of the year 1,365 convicts. Of these, 386 were sentenced for the first conviction, 139 for the second, 199 for the third, 222 for the fourth, 199 for the fifth, 118 for the sixth, 54 for the seventh, 21 for the eighth, 13 for the ninth, 4 for the tenth, 3 for the eleventh, 5 for the twelfth, 1 for the thirteenth, and 1 for the fourteenth. The accused is allowed an attorney, at public expense, to assist him on his trial. The attorney is selected by the provincial governor. The population of Norway in 1872 was 1,763,000. Now, of those convicted in 1871 there were 746 who were sentenced to imprisonment; for over six months, including one sentenced capitally. Assuming that these were the number of cases of aggravated crime it would show one such offense, for which conviction was obtained in course of the year, to every 2,274 inhabitants, which is about the same proportion as in Sweden. The report does not show the literary capacity of the offenders. It, however, classifies them according to sex, age, previous occupation, and locality. It would seem that [Page 1266] the governments of both countries have for a long time set a commendable example in annually publishing full and painstaking reports of their criminal statistics.
I have, &c.,
- 1 kronors is equal to $0.26.80.↩