Research links lead exposure, crime

msnbc ^ | 7/8/7

[LouAvul]

Economist says removing metal from gas, homes has reduced violence

Rudy Giuliani never misses an opportunity to remind people about his track record in fighting crime as mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001.

"I began with the city that was the crime capital of America," Giuliani, now a candidate for president, recently told Fox's Chris Wallace. "When I left, it was the safest large city in America. I reduced homicides by 67 percent. I reduced overall crime by 57 percent."

Although crime did fall dramatically in New York during Giuliani's tenure, a broad range of scientific research has emerged in recent years to show that the mayor deserves only a fraction of the credit that he claims. The most compelling information has come from an economist in Fairfax who has argued in a series of little-noticed papers that the "New York miracle" was caused by local and federal efforts decades earlier to reduce lead poisoning.

The theory offered by the economist, Rick Nevin, is that lead poisoning accounts for much of the variation in violent crime in the United States. It offers a unifying new neurochemical theory for fluctuations in the crime rate, and it is based on studies linking children's exposure to lead with violent behavior later in their lives.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

And here I thought it was social deterioration caused by government.

[tsomer]

There’s so much I don’t understand:

I thought the “Freakonomics” maven said that it was because parents had aborted all the miscreants in the 1960s.

[oyez]

I just saw where two just died of lead poisoning; two rival gang member shot each other to death.

[cgbg]

This study smells like it falls for the correlation not causation fallacy.

Children who grow up poor and turn to crime often don't have fathers living at home, have a violent peer group, have lousy public schools, and, oh yeah, have lead paint in the house.

[Dahoser]

The most compelling information has come from an economist in Fairfax who has argued in a series of little-noticed papers that the "New York miracle" was caused by local and federal efforts decades earlier to reduce lead poisoning.

Lead poisoning reduction efforts did not make the squeegee guys disappear nor clean up Times Square.

[Vinnie_Vidi_Vici]

I have a sure-fire cure for criminal behavior that involves “lead”..........

[Right Wing Assault]

Lead has stopped many a criminal career. Lead can be our friend, especially when traveling many feet per second.

[Roccus]

“The most compelling information has come from an economist in Fairfax who has argued in a series of little-noticed papers......”
_____________________________________________________

Gee, I wonder why this series of papers was “little noticed?” Perhaps because they were STUPID!!!

[L98Fiero]

I swear stupidity knows no bounds. They were just on FoxNews reporting this like it was settled FACT. It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world.

[Bon mots]

That's now the third explanation for the same phenomenon.

1. Malcolm Gladwell - "The Tipping Point": Gladwell thought that a combination of community policing and other factors pushed it beyond "The tipping point" and crime began to go the other way.
2. Stephen P. Leavitt - "Freakonomics": Leavitt says that Roe v. Wade did it - the lowlifes were finally allowed to murder (abort) their wicked little unwanted children some 20 years before the S.W.A.T team would ever have to.
3. Now, lead.

Sounds like the increasing number of theories for the decline of the Roman Empire....

[3Lean]

And it was only 10 years after banning lead that the Soviet Union collapsed (proving conclusively that Ronald Reagan had nothing to do with that event)...