Posted on 02/20/2010 1:10:12 PM PST by launcher
No one can convincingly explain exactly how the crime problem was solved. Police chiefs around the country credit improved police work. Demographers cite changing demographics of an aging population. Some theorists point to the evolution of the drug trade at both the wholesale and retail levels, while for veterans of the Clinton Administration, the preferred explanation is their initiative to hire more cops. Renegade economist Steven Levitt has speculated that legalized abortion caused the drop in crime. (Fewer unwanted babies in the 1970s and '80s grew up to be thugs in the 1990s and beyond.)
The truth probably lies in a mix of these factors, plus one more: the steep rise in the number of Americans in prison. As
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
It doesn't occur to them, or do they willfully ignore it? I imagine either is likely.
Dallas did it by not accurately reporting crime. Police chief under fire, retiring
FWIW, improved trauma treatment has played some considerable role in the drop in the murder rate.
I’ve seen estimates that if emergency medicine was still operating at 1960 levels of effectiveness the murder rate would be two to three times higher. I’d suggest that the assault and assault with intent to kill statistics give a more accurate picture of the violence level.
Just as the relatively low death toll for our military in Iraq says more about the effectiveness of the medical treatment they receive than about the comparative violence of the combat. Compared to previous wars, of course.
Had 2010 medicine been available for our civil war, the total deaths would have been somewhere under 150,000 rather than the actual 640,000.
I hadn’t thought of that- good comment
“Epic Beard Men”
Oh yea!!!
We need more heroes like him!
Of course, if we’d had 2010 medicine available for our civil war, we’d also have had 2010 military tech, and it would have been a whole different war. MOABs used on Richmond, for examples.
That’s the problem with counter-factuals.
Watching the original video is one of life’s guilty pleasures.
how about the millions of illegals that have returned home due to lack of work?
You nailed it, Dude!
Funny thing...I tried to contact Time to let them know the REAL reason crime rates may have declined to some extent. That, of course, is the purchase of firearms by millions of Americans. But it seems you cannot contact Time via email unless you are a subscriber! Apparently the Time folks only want to hear from people brainless enough to subscribe to their magazine!
Meth works? Dead folks don’t contribute to the crime rate.
Reminds me of the old New York Times headline: “Crime Rates Down in Spite of Record Incarceration Rates”.
I haven’t seen a Time magazine since I saw a 1972 edition in my dentist’s office a few weeks ago.
“...looks on those prison years as a costly void, “a waste of society’s time and money in the sense that I didn’t get any rehabilitation or any educational opportunities.””
Prison isn’t just about rehabilitation and all the other folderol. It’s also about punishment, retribution, justice.
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