ABSTRACT
It has long been a popular opinion that committals to prison increase under the pressure of “bad times” and diminish when that pressure is removed. This opinion appears to be in many respects erroneous; and it may not be useless, to show how in reality, crime and disorder, as indicated by committals to prison, are affected by the vicissitudes in the industrial and social state of the working classes. John Clay was Chaplain of Preston Gaol from 1823 until shortly before his death, and became widely-recognized as an authority on crime and punishment. He identified multiple factors leading individuals towards criminal acts (including lack of religion, neglectful parents, alcohol addiction, idleness and sexual promiscuity) but all these are interpreted as moral or behavioural failures rather than as the cultural or social side-effects of poverty and unemployment. Clay’s use of statistics to underpin the argument is noteworthy.
