NATIVITY AND CONVICTIONS FOR INDICTABLE OFFENCES 177 
to those chapters, for they are intimately related to the analysis which is to follow. For 
example, if it is shown that apart from peculiarities of sex and age distribution, immigrants 
of some nationalities have excessively high crime rates, the importance of such a finding 
is greatly increased if at the same time such immigrants are predominantly males, with an 
age distribution kept unduly favourable to crime by the constant withdrawal of the older 
men from the country and the continuous influx of younger men from the homeland. 
While it is important to know in which sections of the population crime is most common, 
the crude crime rates have been frequently taken as an index of differences in criminality 
due to original nature and early environment, and have been used to support the thesis 
that certain nationalities and stocks are more predisposed to disobey the law than are 
others. If no account is taken of age and sex differences, such comparisons may be extremely 
unfair and misleading. Tt is our immediate intention to examine the data on indictable 
offences and determine how far considerations of age and sex account for the higher rate 
obtaining among the foreign-born, and how far it may fairly be attributed to birthplace, 
origin and other faetors. 
Table 108 shows the numbers, 16 years of age and over, convicted of indictable offences 
in Canada by sex and specified age groups. The figures are for the year 1924, being a 
sufficient length of time after the war to reflect normal conditions. The numbers are 
expressed as rates per 100,000 of the population of Canada in the corresponding age and 
sex groups in the year of the Census, 1921. The rates are thus in all cases a little larger 
than they should be, for between 1921 and 1924 the number in each of the age groups 
had slightly increased through immigration and natural growth. However, the error is very 
slight, and as the purpose of the table is to call attention to the influence of age and sex 
on crime, it is the relative rather than the absolute magnitude of the rates which is of 
importance, and the error involved in assuming that the age and sex distribution was the 
same in 1924 as in 1921 is negligible. 
The table emphasizes two facts; first, that convictions for indictable offences among 
men are many times more frequent than among women; and second, that in both sexes they 
are most common under 40 years of age. These facts are of common knowledge, but the 
magnitude of the differences is sometimes not appreciated. 
TABLE 108.—AGE AND SEX AS FACTORS IN CONVICTIONS FOR INDICTABLE OFFENCES 
IN CANADA 
16-20... cer iiini ian 
51-30. ..00i00s 
40 and OVer...oo onion, 
NOt given. cove evsnnn enn. 
Sex 
Number of 
convictions 
in 1024 
{ M 2,831 
F 272 
{ M 8,557 
F 1,054 
{ M 2,167 
F 368 
{ M 2,857 
F 132 
Population 
of Canada 
1921 
393,406 
390,945 
1,311,783 
1.7% 667 
1,207,411 
1,055,408 
Convictions 
per 100,000 
population 
719 
70 
501 
86 
180 
35 
Total convictions: Male. ........14,432 
Female...... 1.828 
The number of convictions in 1921, classified by broad nativity groups, are given in 
Table 109, together with the rates per 100,000 population of each group. If the rate for the 
Canadian born be taken as 100 and those for the “Other British” and Foreign born be 
expressed as percentages of the Canadian rate, the proportions are as follows :— 
Canadian born.. .. .. .. ov vi ti ch ch ch ae a ee eee 
Other British... .. .. .. .. .. ... is 
Foreigh.. vv ve we Wu nn ee oo 
7449919