INCREASE OF CRIME

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 22, 1878

INCREASE OF CRIME.

I clip from the Sedalia Democrat of June 30, the following on the increase of crime:—

“It is a remarkable fact that within the last decade crime has increased in this country nearly thirty per cent. As society advances to a higher plane of civilization, its vices augment. Its restraining influences do not keep pace with the opportunities it affords to the lawless elements which enter so largely into all communities. Philosophers and moralists have speculated upon the causes which produce these conditions, but no adequate explanation has ever been given of the social disease. The most reasonable theory, however, for the increase of crime, is the laxity of punishment. In this country, more than any other, the avenues of escape from the penalties of misdeeds are opened or closed in the degree that the criminal has little or much money.” J. G. Wood.