"Hawke" wrote in message
...
On 9/19/2011 1:58 PM, wrote:
On Sep 19, 3:09 pm, wrote:
That's the headline today; Crime in decline, but why? FBI statistics
show that crime has fallen for eight straight years. Experts are not
sure why. They have some theories; an aging population, low inflation,
and more and smarter policing are some. The one theory that was not
mentioned was because of the gains in the number of people across the
country with concealed carry permits.
Hawke
One theory is that unwed mothers who lack the resources to raise kids
with moral standards have had abortions. So there are fewer badly
raised children around.
See Freakonomics.
Dan
I read it.
Hawke
There is another theory with quite a bit of evidence to support it that the
reduction is due to the elimination of leaded gasoline. Here is the
abstract and paper
ABSTRACT
Childhood lead exposure can lead to psychological deficits that are strongly
associated with aggressive
and criminal behavior. In the late 1970s in the United States, lead was
removed from gasoline under
the Clean Air Act. Using the sharp state-specific reductions in lead
exposure resulting from this removal,
this article finds that the reduction in childhood lead exposure in the late
1970s and early 1980s is
responsible for significant declines in violent crime in the 1990s, and may
cause further declines into
the future. The elasticity of violent crime with respect to lead is
estimated to be approximately 0.8
http://www3.amherst.edu/~jwreyes/pap...BERWP13097.pdf