ABSTRACT
We may also compare the main classes of offences. Taking the indictable offences, the average numbers for the year 1928-30, per 100,000 of the estimated population in 1929 were:
Who are the persons concerned in these offences? What is their employment history? Do they belong to a class of labourers who have drifted in from outside and are cut off from the restraining influences and support of family ties? How many are settled residents? What circumstances have led to the breakdown of social constraints in their cases? Have economic conditions played any part? To answer these interesting questions a prolonged and many-sided investigation would be needed; but an endeavour was made to get some measure of the broader facts by a scrutiny of a sample of one in five cases. The sample showed 188 men and 18 women, a total of 206 cases. The figures may be compared with the
proportion of 209 men and 29 women against whom charges were proved in the same year. The age distribution of the cases was as follows :
(Numbers in a 1 in 5 Sample of all Persons charged)
A comparison of birthplaces and residences of those in the sample gave some light on their status as migrant or native bom.
