Capable as many of the better-conditioned blacks are of attaining all the virtues of the average white citizen, and, in some instances, of transcending them, the American of African descent is, on the whole, fully as prone to homicide as are the native Indians, whose savage cruelty he does not hesitate, when excited by the lust for blood, to emulate. In Lexington, Kentucky, for instance, where 38 per cent, of the population are negroes, 13 per cent, of whom are illiterate, the annual average of arrests for murder and manslaughter during the four years 1901-04 was 40.07 per one hundred thousand of inhabitants, the highest ratio of any city of which statistics covering more than one year are available. Only 3.5 per cent, of the population are of foreign birth, hence the great number of homicides implied by these figures can not be attributed to the immigrant population.
On the other hand, in cities where the proportion of negroes is small, the higher ratios of arrests for homicide correspond with the higher percentages of immigrants from certain countries. Other things being equal, the lower ratios prevail where the foreign element is from northern Europe, and the higher ratios are seen where the foreign element is from the countries shown above to produce the emigrants who are most given to crimes of violence.
The following table shows the ratios of arrests for homicide per one hundred thousand of population in various cities, for the years 1880, 1890, 1900, and the annual average ratios for the last two or more years.[1]
Referring to the last two columns of the table above, it is seen that despite the fact that San Francisco has but a very small negro population (only 0.5 per cent, of the total inhabitants, in 1900), the annual average ratio of arrests for homicide is greater than in Louisville, Kentucky; or in Charleston, South Carolina, where the negro population is relatively large. This corresponds with the fact that San Francisco has a large number of Chinese (about 16,000) in her population; a large proportion of Italians (7,508, in 1900); about 1,500 Mexicans, and a large proportion of foreign born from various countries other than Scandinavian, Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon.
The latest report of the Sheriff of San Francisco County shows that of the prisoners committed to the county jails during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904, 70 per cent, were of foreign birth, while the proportion of foreign born in the total population is about 34 per cent.
- ↑ The proportion of homicides committed would, of course, serve more accurately as an index of relative criminality, in respect to the crimes of manslaughter and murder, than would the number of arrests therefor. The former statistics not being available in many instances, the latter have been used as a basis for the present study. The writer's thanks are due the many chiefs of police, and others, who have so kindly assisted him in procuring the statistics of arrests for homicide in the various cities mentioned in this study.
