Page 61 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

ON INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL to»:P,AIUSONS S5
element in either so small as to tell yO'll.nothing of the
general constitution of the people? Not only, therefore.
must criminal statistics be used with care as far as the
mere data are concerned, but the difficulty of usi~g them
as indicative of the general qualities of a population
is overwhelming. They can only be used, if used at
all, in conjunction with much other information and
statistics.
The statistics bearing on sexual morality are equally
diffic~lt to handle. The test here that is most commonly
used is that of illegitimacy; but the truth is that il-
legitimacy by itself tells little, for the simple reason that
in a town community there may be prostitution without
illegitimate births, whereas in a rural community there
may be even less profligacy than in the town, but with
• a larger number of iIIegitimate births, in consequence
of there being no prostitution. In one country also the
births may be registered as legitimate, through the
children being born in wedlock; but this may go along
with a general laxity of morals of a remarkable kind.
Sexual immorality is also like crime itself, even when
it can be measured on the same basis in two different
communities. more or less a thing apart, and it mayor
may not be significant of the general morale of the
population. I suppose it is true, for instance, that the
rural population of Ireland stands better, as far as
statistics of illegitimacy are concerned, than that of
Scotland, but it would be a rash inference that in
general morale the rural population of Ireland is superior
to the Scotch. For certain purposes the statistics are
good enough, but they must not be pushed to conclu-
sions they do not bear. ,
Statistics as to drunkenness also require a good deal
of careful handling. In fact, I see no way myself of
establishing statistically that one population is more or
less drunken than another. Apart from the difficulty
already referred to, arising from the different distribu-
tion of two populations according to age, so that one
population has proportionately more adults than another,