I doubt that most of us would realize this without being told, but violent crime has actually dropped precipitously over the last 30 years. Cracked has a wonderful article on the interesting statistical correlations with this drop:
The 6 Weirdest Things That Statistically Lower Crime
http://www.cracked.com/article_19893_the-6-weirdest-things-that-statistically-lower-crime.html
#6. Getting the Lead Out of the Environment
This has a very plausible sound to it and had me nodding my head as I read it. Sort of like the antibiotic thing I talked about earlier, there seems to be a very strong correlation and one that is easy to extrapolate to causality.
#5. Crack Cocaine Scaring Everyone Straight
This one I am not buying so much, humans don’t really ever get ‘scared straight’, so I see it more related to
#4. There Is Suddenly Plenty of Drugs for Everyone
This is the core of my reasoning for doing away with the whole ‘war on drugs‘ (but please note my caveat). With the massive profit removed, the incentive for crime, particularly violent crime, has largely vanished. I like this one like I like the lead one.
#3. Gangsters Getting Geekier
While I do see that there is a huge benefit to going with identity theft (this is an even safer crime than prostitution! more money, even less risk), I think the reduction in violent crime is largely due to #4 (and #6 and #1).
#2. Illegal Immigration
I am of the opinion that lots of this crime goes unreported, so to me the reduction in crime associated with illegal immigration is more to do with our idiotic response to the illegals (throw them in jail, then toss them back over the fence, even when they are victims rape, robbery, murder, etc.). However, I have read about #1 below and believe that it slots right in next to #6 as the likeliest reason we have seen the drop in crime…
#1. Legalized Abortion
This is not to say that rich don’t engage in violet crime (Menendez brothers, anyone?), just that they engage in a whole crap load less than impoverished sons of husband-less mothers. What do you wanna bet that the crime rate starts to creep up 15-18 years after all the GOP’s war on women effects start to settle in?
