covering five generations, exclusive of the 5 ancestresses, does not
strike us as evidence of an exceedingly prosperous birth-rate. If there
had been another thousand descendants it would not allow for an average
of 3 children to grow up and marry in each family. We may then set aside
the contention that the "Jukes" were enormously prolific.

Still the "Jukes" were an enormous cost to their country, and surely we
should prevent such a family ever appearing in our midst. The answer to
this is that the "Jukes" have only appeared once, and, so far as our
community is concerned, our social progress makes their reappearance
absolutely impossible. The "Jukes" were a tribe of vagabond outlaws.
They gained a livelihood by fishing, hunting, robbery, and intermittent
work. They lived in a rocky, inaccessible region in the lake country of
the State of New York. Their criminals were able, with a considerable
measure of success, to defy the police, and travellers very rarely
approached the vicinity of their habitat. Some drifted into the towns
and villages. A proportion of these supported themselves by honest
industry, and a proportion became a burden upon the rates; Such nests of
criminals can exist only in partially civilized countries. The advance
of civilization extinguishes them. Nowhere in New Zealand could such a
tribe prey upon and defy society for a period of two weeks together. The
criminals that we have to deal with are those which society produces not
those which it extinguishes.

But if the "Jukes" were at all reproductive what is the difference
between them and other cases of criminals? Principally this, that the
"Jukes" formed a little society of their own in which marriage and
co-habitation was the rule. Of their women 52 per cent. were
disreputable; but Dugdale refuses to call them prostitutes, but rather
harlots, indicating that their marital relations were of the order of a
progressive polyandry and by no means unproductive. Under these
conditions, a fairly large natural increase is not to be wondered at.

No such family has, nor could, exist in the midst of our civilization,
but as the case is advanced, not to show a distinct species of
criminality, but rather as an example of the rate of natural increase
that may be expected of a criminal family, we will examine and compare
the conditions of life existing among the "Jukes" and the criminal that
we have to deal with and thus discover features among the latter