Efforts to curb youth crime by helping former young offenders to emigrate

Decrease of Juvenile Crime in Edinburgh

A meeting was held in the Original Ragged Industrial Schools, Edinburgh, on Saturday, in aid of the emigration fund of the institution; the Earl of Southesk in the chair. The Rev. Dr. Guthrie, in stating the object of the meeting, spoke of the good which had resulted from the operation of the schools during the time they had been in existence. He said he was prepared to prove that before the children who had been brought up in the schools, and who had been saved from a career of crime, were dead, there would be a saving to the country of upwards of 300,000l. He would allow 500 of the 1,000 who had passed through the schools to have gone wrong, in order that he might be within the mark in his calculations. By means of the schools there would be a saving of 135,000l; and if they took the value of the labour of the 500 at 20l a year each - supposing they lived 20 years - there would be a total saving to the country of 335,000l. He read a return of the number of juveniles committed to the prison of Edinburgh in the 22 years ended the 30th of November, 1868, as showing the large decrease that had occurred since the institution of the various ragged and industrial schools in the town. In 1847 the number of juveniles committed to prison under 14 years of age was 260, while in 1868 it was only 52. The number of juveniles under 16 years of age committed in 1848 was 552, while in 1868 there were only 76.