From The Times, November 5, 1921:
The effects of unemployment and of war experiences on crime are discussed in the report of the Commissioners of Prisons for the year ended March 31 last, which was issued as a White Paper yesterday. The prison authorities ascribe the small increase in the number of prisoners sentenced compared with the previous year principally to the effect of unemployment pay, which has prevented acute distress, and to improved education, higher wages, and better conditions of the working classes, the extreme destitution of prewar days having disappeared.
Speaking of first offenders, the Governor of Durham Prison states: “A new stamp of offender has sprung into existence. Men and women of respectable antecedents, in regular employment and in no respects associated with the criminal class, are taking to serious crime (fraud, embezzlement, false pretences, house-breaking and robbery). This has been blamed on the spirit of lawlessness acquired by men whilst serving with the Forces. I do not agree. I believe the explanation is rather to be found in the fact that high wages are now not obtainable. The economic readjustment of the past year has created a number of discontented, feckless people who do not realize that they have been living in an artificial wage market. Money they must have to provide the luxuries and amusements to which they have grown accustomed, so they steal, pilfer and loaf.”
The Governor of Shrewsbury Prison says “Many men are now in prison whom, in years before the war, it would be quite the exception to receive, eg, railway guards and engine drivers — men with excellent records of long service and on a high rate of pay. Unfortunately, pilfering on the railway is very prevalent and is done by men who ordinarily would be classed as respectable.”
The Governor of Wandsworth writes: “The experience gained in the Army of motor mechanics has led to a large increase in garage-breaking and motor thieving, and as the type of man affected is usually intelligent and of fairly good education and the crime itself is adventurous and exciting, I fear that many of the delinquents will revert to it on release from prison. It seems to have attracted many who would not otherwise have taken to crime.”
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