Social Agencies and Crime Prevention

Abstract

A realistic determination by this Conference of the role it should fill in a program of city-wide crime and juvenile delinquency prevention can take place only after an analysis of the instruments available to social agencies, their efficacy as crime preventives, and the scope of these instruments as compared with the field of criminal operations and violations of laws affecting health and public policy. A rapid survey of arrest statistics in New York City indicates the deep-seated and prevalent nature of defiance of laws in this .city. The report of the Police Commissioner for 1930 states that 465,576 arrests were made. This figure, in ratio to the population figures of the 1930 Federal census, indicates that this total represents one arrest for every five males above 16 years of age. The Police Commissioner has subdivided the total of arrests into eight classifications, of which 363,177 consist of minor violations. This group, labelled in the Police report as "violations against regulations for public health, public safety and public policy" included violations of the sanitary code, miscellaneous narcotics violations, intoxication, intoxication combined with disorderly conduct, operating an automobile without a license, gambling of all descriptions including crap-shooting, slot machines, policy rackets and book-making, Sabbath Law violations, Park ordinance violations, peddling without licenses, and a vast number of traffic violations.