214 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
every 3 was a female. On May 23, 1898, I in every 16 of the total number of prisoners was a female, and I in every 4.5 of the negro prisoners was a female. From this we may con- clude that the proportion of female negro prisoners is greatly in excess of the proportion of total female prisoners confined in
the county jail.
AGE.
Ages of negroes under general police arrests. The average age of the 427 negro persons arrested by the police in May, and January, 1897, was twenty -six years. The average age of the males was 25.29; females, 26.70. The largest number of arrests is of persons from twenty to twenty-five years of age. From a comparison of the total arrests for 1897 with the negro arrests for January and May it would appear that the proportion of arrests for the total population and the negro population is about the same for persons between the ages of ten and twenty ; that the proportion of negro arrests is greater for persons between the ages of twenty and thirty than the proportion of total arrests for persons of that age ; and that the proportion of total arrests is greater for all persons over thirty years of age than the pro- portion of negro arrests for negro persons over that age.
Classification of ages by sex. Classified by sex it is seen that the largest number of male arrests among the negroes was of persons from twenty to twenty-five years of age, and that the majority of male arrests were of persons less than twenty-five years of age. Also that there was a larger percentage of negro male arrests between the ages of ten and twenty than the percent- age of total arrests between those ages.
Comparing the male and female arrests of negroes, we see that there is a less proportion of female arrests under the age of twenty years than of males, the percentage of female arrests under twenty years of age being 10, male 22 ; also that there is a greater proportion of arrests among the females from twenty to twenty-five years of age than among the males for that period, the percentage of female arrests for that period being 41 per cent., male 30 per cent. ; from twenty-five to thirty years of age the proportion of female arrests is also greater than the males, the
