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
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