190 RELATION OF ORIGINS AND NATIVITY TO CRIME
born as a group are less law-abiding than the Canadian born by half, in respect to major
offences at least, and when we take them as they are, with large surpluses of males and
abnormal age distribution, their crime rate is four times greater.
The fact, moreover, should not be overlooked, that the age and sex distribution of immigrants
will continue tc be unusually favourable to crime. When one thinks of the actual
problem of law enforcement as it exists in Canada to-day and will exist in the immediate
future, it is by the proportion four to one rather than two to one that the authorities must
measure the criminal tendency of the foreign as compared with the Canadian born, Or, to
state the problem in another way, the difficulty of law enforcement among the foreign born
is four times as great in proportion to their numbers as among the Canadian born and this
situation in respect to serious criminal offences will tend to persist with immigration on the
present basis.
The rate for the British born is somewhat higher than that for the Canadian born for
the early ages, that is, up to 25. This confirms the previous suggestion that the absence of
the British born fathers during the war had a serious effect on the discipline of the children.
Between 25 and 40 years the rates for the British born are lower than for the Canadian
born, and above 40 years they are somewhat higher, though the actual numbers are so small
bhat no great weight should be laid on the individual figures. On the whole it seems safe to
say that the British born showed somewhat larger percentages in penitentiaries than the
Canadian born in 1921.
TABLE 117.~NUMBER IN PENITENTIARIES PER 100,000 POPULATION BY NATIVITY, SEX AND
QUINQUENNIAL AGE GROUPS. 1921.
Both Sexes—
Total... .oooiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnenn,
Canadian borr............ceevvunnnn..
British born.............. ......
Foreign born....... ...
Malos—
Tobi ieiviis in in
Canadian born......
British born.....
Foreign born...
Females—
1 Rr
Canadian borf............. ..........
British born............ wiwin £20 vente
Foreign born..........................
All
ages | 15-19 | 20-24 | 25-29 30-34 | 35-39 | 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-58
60 and
over
26 33) 8 64 46, 37) 36 22, 20, 19 .
19 30 1p 52 39) 32 27) 17 14 16 7
27 43 70 | 37, 251 18) 32) 22( a1] 20 7
750 511 163 135| 93| 76| 78 44| 61] 35 15
56
38
4¢
127
6e
Fr
166
142
146
308
124
104
75
29°
85
76
44
151
| 65 | es| 40, 38 | 36 15
61| 52] 32) 26! 32 13
33| 57) 40] 34 35 14
151 1231 wl 21 57 2
(
10
Lv
GC
& 1 0 0
1 1 0 0
0 3 0 0
0 0 0 0
Norr.—Where (—) is inserted rate is less than 0-5 per 100,000.
Table 118 shows the number and rate per 100,000 in penitentiaries of the foreign born
male population aged 21 years and over in Canada, by specified countries of birth. The
table deals only with the immigrants and with the male portion of them. Direct comparison
between the rates is consequently not vitiated by differences in sex distribution, though
some unfairness is involved to those countries from which immigration has been more
recent, since age distribution among such immigrants would be somewhat more favourable
to crime than that for the groups which had come in large numbers earlier in the century.
Reference therefore should be made to Table 28 in Chapter II for the purpose of making
allowance for differences as to length of residence and consequent variation in age distribution
of the male population from the various foreign countries.
Further, the numbers of males for many countries of birth are so small that the rates
are not reliable, However, when one selects the five European countries from which the
