Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1901 — Disorderly Conduct in Scotland. [ARTICLE]

Disorderly Conduct in Scotland.

The Scottish judicial statistics for the year are not altogether pleasant reading. Serious crime has been decreasing in Scotland for some time. The period 1895-9 shows a decrease of 26% per cent as compared with 1870-4. That is satisfactory, but while the serious crime is diminishing, the “huge volume of drunkenness and disorder,” to quote from the report, “which marks Scottish statistics so unfavorably as^com pared with those of other countries” seems to be steadily increasing. The number of persons charged with drunkenness and disorder rose last year to 112,033, which is a record figure. Drunkenness and disorder, indeed, account for more than 60 per cent of the whole of the police offenses in Scotland. , Those are eminently offenses of the larger towns, though at the same time some of the smaller burghs in this respect apparently try to compete with their larger neighbors? In counties the general average is 83.7 per 10,000; in burghs with a population of 50,000 and over it is 439.5; and the average decreases in the various classes till in the case of burghs with a population of under 2,500 it is 250.3 per 10,000.—Chicago News.