Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - II. The Swedish People - 3. National Character and Social Conditions. Introd. by [G. Sundbärg] J. Asproth - Moral Conditions. By [G. Sundbärg] E. Arosenius - Criminality. By [G. Sundbärg] G. Adolf Larsson
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CRIMINALITY.
1 (163
In the years 1851 — 60, 43-4 % of the children born alive in Stockholm were
born out of wedlock; in the years 1901—10 this percentage had fallen to 33"6;
it had however been still lower in the intervening time. To every thousand
unmarried women, between the ages 20 — 45 years, there are now in Stockholm
about 53 illegitimate births annually; we may recall the fact that the mean
figure for the whole of German and Bohemian Austria is 72. As regards
Stockholm it should also be remembered that no small number of the mothers here
included really belong to rural districts. The number of stillborn children in
Stockholm has fallen from 55’5 for the years 1856—60, to 29’2 for
the years 1901—10. We have before mentioned the decline in the number of
prostitutes. — As concerns the consumption of spirits, it may be mentioned that
when, in 1877, the sale was taken over by a company, in accordance with the
"Gothenburg system", it disposed of about 23’6 liters of spirits (50 %) per head
of the Stockholm population during its first year of activity, while nowadays
the sale amounts to only 11 or 12 liters per head.
That the death-rate in Stockholm has undergone an unparallelled diminution,
has been already mentioned. For the years 1851 — 60 the total death-rate
amounted to 41’5 %0 annually; for the years 1891—95 it was but 20 %o, and
for 1901—10 about 16 %o. Only few great cities can nowadays compete with
Stockholm in favourable lowness of the death-rate. — During the last few
decades the frequency of marriage has quite naturally changed, and on the
whole, rather increased than decreased. Matrimonial fecundity increased till the
beginning of the nineties, but since it has diminished — in Stockholm, just
as in Sweden generally, and practically over the whole of Europe.
If it be also remembered that, during the last fifty years, the population of
Stockholm has trebled in numbers, and that its administration and public
institutions of all kinds have, during this period, reached a standpoint which has
often been acknowledged as perfect, it may with truth be said that the
capital of Sweden is, nowadays, something quite different from what it was
during the first half of last century, and that a work of reform and regeneration
has been carried out, to which, for scope and thoroughness, it would be difficult
to find a parallel.
Criminality.
Of all the branches of statistics, there is assuredly none of which
the results are so difficult to judge correctly as criminal statistics, and
yet investigation is compelled to return to them, over and over again, to
endeavour to gain at least some light upon the gloomy problems
presented by them to the human race. But it must be borne in mind that
actual criminality is not reflected always quite adequately in figures
relating to crimes brought into court or to sentences on offenders; sundry
circumstances, such as a varying inclination to give information or to
prosecute, differences of severity in the application of laws, etc. may at
times introduce a variation of these figures in the statistics, without a
corresponding change really occurring in actual criminality.
Concerning the statistics of criminality in Sweden, some chief data for
earlier and more recent periods are collected in Table 31. These figures are,
no doubt, unreliable and not fully comparable with each other, but they
give, in any case, the best information that can be gained on the subject.
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