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 L I B RAR.Y 
 
 OF THL 
 
 U N IVLRSITY 
 
 or ILLI NOIS
 
 •-V
 
 EXTKAOEDIXARY 
 
 DECREASE IN CRIME 
 
 ^t Hilton, 
 
 AND THE ACTION WIIIOII HAS PRODUCED IT. 
 
 P.Y THE 
 
 REV. nUGH SMYTH J.P, 
 
 yirny of RnvrjMon Regli^. 
 
 Read at the Leeds Concress op the National Associa- 
 ttox eok the pptomotton of soctal sciexce. 
 
 riTZROY PPvINTING WOEKS. 2. OGLE STREET. W. 
 
 1872,
 
 DECEEASE IN CEIIME AT LUTON, &c. 
 
 An isolated and local decrease in crime, so 
 sndden and so decided as that "wliicli has 
 taken place during the last two years in the 
 town of Luton, is I believe without a parallel 
 in the social history of this countr}^, and the 
 action which produced it is I think worthy of 
 investio-ation. 
 
 To show its extent and thus at the outset 
 enlist your attention, let me give you the 
 figures as they are furnished by the police, 
 premising that Luton is a manufacturing 
 town of new and rapid growth containing 
 about 21,000 inhabitants. In making up the 
 whole mass of crime, great and small, we had 
 in 1868, 365 offences; in 1869, 368 offences; 
 in 1870, 285 offences; whilst in the nine 
 months ending Michaelmas, 1871, we have 
 had 163, or supposing the average to be
 
 4 DECEEASE IN CRIME AT LUTON, ETC. 
 
 maintained to tlie close of tlie year we should 
 have about 200, but as there is a great decHne 
 also during this quarter in the general mass 
 of crime, I may say that the total number of 
 offences against the law has been diminished 
 by more than one-half. Thus the gravest 
 description of crime has been reduced to less 
 than one-fourth^ whilst in the year 1868 it 
 would seem that about one-fourth of these 
 grave crimes escaped detection, in the year 
 just ended, but one undetected crime of this 
 class is recorded. Misdemeanors have also 
 decreased four per cent., and poaching offen- 
 ces one-fourth. 
 
 I may represent the decrease in yet another 
 way. Some dozen years ago a police station 
 was built with six cells in it; these were 
 found three or four years ago to be quite in- 
 sufficient, and six more were added — they 
 were frequently so full that the corridor and 
 guard room were used at night. Now the 
 inspector reports that three cells would be 
 sufficient, and indeed for the last month they 
 have been quite unoccupied, no prisoners 
 having been detained in the cells for our 
 
 .uiucT
 
 DECftEASE IN ClilME AT LUTON, ETC. 
 
 weekly petty sessions during tliat period. 
 
 This tlien is the result ; let us now seek for 
 the cause, and in arriving at it we must not 
 make it dependent either on the fluctuations 
 of trade, an increase in the number or effici- 
 ency of the police, the operation of the 
 vagrancy laws, or the increased severity of 
 prison discipline. 
 
 Our action then was entirely founded on 
 recent legislation. Of one Act we had already 
 largely availed ourselves ; I mean, the Ju- 
 venile Offenders and Reformatory Act ; I 
 observe that its efficiency has lately been to 
 a certain degree questioned, but to me it 
 seems only to require firm and judicious 
 working. The rule we laid down was never 
 to commit to a Reformatory on a first offence, 
 but invariably to commit on a second ; by the 
 first rule it is true we sometimes discharged 
 boys whose homes, or want of homes, made 
 it certain that they would soon come back 
 again, but then they did come back again and 
 were then dealt with. Thus we had been to 
 a certain extent for some time cutting off the 
 supply of crime.
 
 6 DECREASE IN CEIME AT LUTON, ETC. 
 
 The Habitual Criminals and Licensing Acts 
 supplied tlie means we required for dealing 
 with existing crime. 
 
 The Habitual Criminals Act dealt rigor- 
 ously with the Marine Store dealers, and Ave 
 enforced its provisions, the clauses which 
 prohibit the purchase of small quantities of 
 broken metal we found most salutary and 
 generally we placed these shops under the 
 surveillance of the police, not in such a way 
 as to impede regular trade, but so as to 
 render irregular trafi&c extremely dangerous ; 
 in every case in which there was a choice 
 between convicting a receiver and a thief we 
 unhesitatingly chose the former, especially if 
 the thief was young in crime, the contrary 
 practice has very much prevailed and has left 
 nurseries of crime untouched, without which 
 its commission would have been much more 
 difficult. 
 
 The alteration in the Licensing Laws gave 
 us the additional powers we still wanted. 
 
 The Magistrates were enabled to issue a 
 notice, of which the following is a copy : — 
 
 "Any person who occupies or keeps any
 
 DEClillASE IN CiilME AT LUTOK, ETC. 7 
 
 Lodging House, Beer House, Public House, 
 or other place where excisable liquors are 
 sold, or place of entertainment or public 
 resort, and knowingly lodges or harbours 
 thieves or imputed thieves, or knowingly 
 permits them or suffers them to assemble 
 therein, or allows the deposit of goods therein, 
 having reasonable cause for believing them to 
 be stolen, shall then be liable on summary 
 conviction to a penalty not exceeding ten 
 pounds, and the Justice or Magistrate before 
 whom he may be brought may require him to 
 enter into his own recognizances, with or 
 without sureties, for keeping the peace and 
 being of good behaviour during twelve 
 months, and any licence for the sale of 
 excisable liquors or for keeping any place of 
 pubhc resort which has been granted to the 
 occupier or keeper of any such house or place 
 as aforesaid, shall be forfeited on the itrst 
 conviction of any offence under this Act." 
 
 Observe what this clause takes away from 
 convicted criminals, and the position in which 
 it places them. 
 
 They may not be lodged together in com-
 
 8 DECREASE JN ClilME AT LUTON, ETC. 
 
 mon lodging houses, they may not be 
 harboured in Beer Houses under pretence of 
 recreation or refreshment ; if they are, a first 
 conviction forfeits the hcence ; and it must 
 be noted that a conviction is not of absolute 
 necessity for breaking up a nest of crime of 
 this description ; if it shall appear to the 
 Magistrates on the licensing day that any 
 house is the habitual resort of convicted or 
 disorderly persons, they may on that ground 
 refuse the licence. 
 
 Yet another safeguard remains : the Magis- 
 trates may refase a licence on the defective 
 personal character of the applicant ; and it is 
 to be observed that the onus lies upon the 
 applicant to show his respectability; very 
 frequently a few written recommendations, 
 untested even, or coming from interested 
 parties, are taken to be sufficient as a matter 
 of course. We adopted a very different 
 system ; if the applicant was a stranger, the 
 police enquired into his antecedents, and 
 tested his references ; very many applicants 
 were in this way and from this cause rejected. 
 
 On these several grounds we refused
 
 DECEEASE IX CEIME AT Lb'TOX, ETC. \J 
 
 licences to thiety-foue public houses in one 
 day, and in round numbers have reduced 
 them by about one-fifth. 
 
 So it has come to this, that the old typical 
 keeper of the thieves' public house, the 
 successful thief retired on his earnings, the 
 receiver, or at any rate, the kindly patron of 
 crime, has passed away, and public houses 
 must be kept by respectable men with cha- 
 racters to forfeit, and houses which will be 
 forfeited by transgression, and the position 
 in which convicted persons are placed, pre- 
 sents these features : — 
 
 (1.) The power of concerted crime is gone. 
 Xow for successful and systematic crime of a 
 serious character, concert is almost a necessity. 
 Take the graver crimes of burglary, house- 
 breaking, or highway-robbery, they are 
 generally managed in this way: The parties 
 meet in some contiguous public house to 
 watch the dwelhng or the victim, and they 
 meet afterwards in the same way to dispose 
 of the booty; but if two or 'three convicted 
 persons were to be seen lingering together 
 about a street, they would become the objects
 
 10 iJECitEASE IN CmME AT LUTON, ETC. 
 
 of suspicion, and be themselves watclied 
 accordingly. 
 
 (2.) The opportunity for instruction and 
 temptation to crime is in a measure cut off, 
 that will for the most part occur in the 
 public house. An innocent man does not 
 often become the associate of thieves from a 
 chance meeting in the streets or the work- 
 shop ; the low public house is for the most 
 part the school, as well as the home, of 
 crime. 
 
 But the most salutary action of these laws 
 still remains. 
 
 (3.) The criminal has become a criminal 
 because he dislikes steady work, because he 
 likes to lounge away his time and drink him- 
 self drunk in a public house, because his 
 intemperate habits preclude his employment, 
 and because he lacks a sufficient stimulus to 
 drive him to honest labour. 
 
 But his condition now is changed ; he gets 
 up in the morning late, having been out half 
 the night. In the old time he would have 
 betaken himself to a thieves' house of call, 
 and whiled away the day with some congenial
 
 DEOEEASE IN CIUME AT LUTOX, ETC. 11 
 
 friends: that liouse is gone now, and if lie 
 betakes himself to some better class liouse, 
 the landlord in mortal terror for his licence 
 hurries him out of the house with all speed, 
 and he must hang about the streets as the 
 long day drags on. When night comes 
 matters are worse for him ; the police reheved 
 from the duty of watching and controlling 
 these low public houses, are everywhere on 
 the alert ; he sees little chance of following 
 his trade: the public houses are all lit up, 
 tempting him with his one idea of happiness ; 
 but he is a Pariah; he must not join the 
 parties assembled there: he may try house 
 after house, the ansvfer is always the same, 
 "you are a convicted thief, we must not 
 harbour you," and so the life becomes at once 
 impracticable and intolerable. 
 
 These men have said over and over again, 
 " In mercy, give us three months and let im 
 liave done with it, but do not hunt us about 
 like this." 
 
 It is a stern remedy, I admit, one unjusti- 
 fiable, save for a great end. We are hunting 
 him to honesty and respectabiHty ; there are
 
 places where lie may always be safe, and 
 wliere our instructions are urgent lie shall 
 not be followed. If he is at work, he is safe 
 from the note of the police ; if he is at home 
 he is safe from their intrusion ; it is only 
 from the public house, which has been his 
 iiuiN, that we drive him. 
 
 And at this point I may add one more very 
 important element in the diminution of crime 
 in the Luton Division. The merit of a police 
 officer is gauged not by the number of con- 
 victions he procures, but by the absence of 
 crime on his beat; the opposite test has, I 
 fear, in other parts of the country, been 
 productive of much evil; it is so often a 
 matter of choice to the police, whether they 
 will prevent and extirpate crime, or be content 
 with leaving its commission feasible ; so long 
 as its detection is frequent, that where the 
 merit of a police officer is weighed by the 
 number of his convictions, you will surely find 
 that crime will be very slow in its decline. 
 
 This is the course then we have pursued : 
 I have given you the result as regards the 
 diminution of crime.
 
 DECREASE IX CEIME A'L' LUTOX, ETC. lo 
 
 But wliat has become of the criminals? 
 
 Our superintendent has not lost sight of this 
 20oint and has made it a matter of special 
 observation ; he roughly estimates their num- 
 ber at about three hundred. One half at 
 least of these he notes have o'one to work ; 
 these men instead of lounging about the 
 streets ragged and disreputable, are now pros- 
 pering, many of them with decent Sunday 
 clothes, and striving hard to emancipate them- 
 selves from the black list : about fifty have 
 disappeared altogether, I believe many of 
 them have betaken themselves to the usual 
 resources of unskilled labour in extremit}^. 
 About one hundred remain who are still more 
 or less unsatisfactory, but they are not living 
 on the produce of crime in the Luton division 
 at any rate, because no undetected crime is 
 reported; probably they manage to get on 
 by means of irregular employment and pil- 
 fering of so minute a character that it escapes 
 notice or is not thought worth reporting to 
 the pohce ; possibly they may occasionally 
 visit less closely preserved localities, the 
 Magistrates of which have of course the same
 
 14 DECREASE IN CRIME AT LUTON, ETC. 
 
 remedy in their hands as we have had in 
 ours. 
 
 And this diminished number is receiving 
 very few additions — the criminal hfe is no 
 longer attractive and youthful crime is cut 
 very short, so that in concluding my record 
 of diminished crime I may express a hope, 
 which has in it something of assurance, that . 
 if the same measures are unflinchingly pur- 
 sued, and if Christianity and Education are 
 enabled still more largely to co-operate with 
 the executive, crime will still further decline 
 till it is reduced to a minimum, a fraction of 
 its former amount, especially if one earnest 
 wish I have might be fulfilled, with regard to 
 which recent legislation, prolific in repressive 
 measures, has been singularly barren — I 
 mean, that not only the way of transgression 
 may be made hard, but the way from a crimi- 
 nal life to the life of an honest citizen might 
 be made a little more smooth, I had almost 
 said in many instances, a little more possible. 
 
 It will be observed that in this paper I 
 have treated only of the decrease in more 
 serious crime.
 
 DECKEASE IN CEBIE AT LUTON, ETC. 15 
 
 I have not had time to enlarge on tlie less 
 obtrusive working of these measures, and I 
 think it is hardly necessary. I need not tell 
 you of the results produced by the removal 
 of those houses in which adulterated drinks, 
 which brutalize and inflame, are principally 
 sold ; by the suppression of houses where 
 honest and dishonest earnings are dissipated 
 in gaming (the sure resource of a failing 
 public-house) ; of houses to which the title of 
 brothels is more applicable than that of pub- 
 lic houses, in which many an unfallen girl is 
 first inured into profligacy ; of the removal 
 of so many temptations to intemperance, a 
 crime in itself and the parent of crime ; these 
 results I may safely leave you, as thinking 
 men, for yourselves to estimate, only pointino- 
 out to you that the minor off'ences which 
 spring more directly from these sources have 
 diminished by one half, and are still rapidly 
 diminishino'.
 
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