growth of population. If we had no Industrial and Reformatory
institutions for the detention of criminal and quasi-criminal
offenders among the young, there can be no doubt that England, as well
as other countries, would have to make the lamentable admission that
crime was not only increasing in her midst, but that it was increasing
faster than the growth of population. The number of juveniles in these
institutions has more than trebled since 1868,[8] and it is
unquestionable that if these youthful offenders were not confined
there, a large proportion of them would immediately begin to swell the
ranks of crime. That crime in England is not making more rapid strides
than the growth of population, is almost entirely to be attributed to
the action of these schools.

[8] See Appendix II.

We shall now look at another aspect of the criminal question, and that
is its cost. Crime is not merely a danger to the community; it is
likewise a vast expense; and there is no country in Europe where it
does not constitute a tremendous drain upon the national resources.
Owing to the federal system of government in America, it is almost
impossible to estimate how much is spent in the prevention and
punishment of crime in the United States, but Mr. Wines calculates
that the police force alone costs the country fifteen million dollars
annually.[9] In the United Kingdom the cost of criminal justice and
administration is continually on the increase, and it has never been
so high as it is at the present time. In the Estimates for the year
1891 the cost of Prisons and of the Asylum for criminal lunatics falls
little short of a million sterling. Reformatory and Industrial Schools
for juvenile offenders cost considerably over half-a-million, and the
expenditure on the Police force is over five and a half millions