222 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
past five years, from 1893-7, over the previous five years, from 1888-92. The average per cent, of negro arrests in the total arrests of the city 1888-92 was 9.41; 1893-7 the average per- centage was 9.50. The average percentage 1893-7 was 6.42. Judging from this, crime among the negroes of Chicago appears to be on the increase at the present time.
THE CAUSE OF THIS EXCESS OF CRIME.
The question now arises : Why this excess of crime among the negroes of Chicago and of the United States in general ? Are they advancing or retrograding? F. L. Hoffman, in Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, " Publication of American Economic Association," Vol. XI, 1896, takes the posi- tion that the negro is retrograding. Since his emancipation he has made no real advancement in a moral or social way. The fact that his tendency is downward accounts for a large part of his excess of crime.
If the American negro is degenerating, then his degeneracy does, in a large measure, account for his excess of crime. On the other hand, if he is not degenerating, but making progress in civilization, then his excess of crime must be accounted for on other grounds. Going on the hypothesis of his social advance- ment, may we not say that, since his emancipation, he has been in a transitional state a transition from a state of slavery to one of freedom ? During all these years he has been endeavoring to adjust himself to his new environment. He has had to endure the economic stress and strain attendant upon this transition. The fact that he is in this transitional state from a lower to a higher plane of development accounts for a part, at least, of his excess of crime. Within this transition the economic stress under which he has labored appears to be the main factor. In the South his economic condition is better in many ways than in the North. In those places where his economic condition is the best his rate of crime is the lowest. The reverse is also true : where his economic condition is poorest his rate of crime is the highest. His economic condition is poorer in Chicago than in the southern cities noted.
