Speculation over why US crime stats are recording falls

[pchang]

#11 - With the state local budget crunches, we had to lay off the people who keep the crime statistics.....

[Kuciwalker]

Crime is a vicious/virtuous cycle. High crime begets higher crime because it is harder to find and punish criminals. Low crime begets lower crime because it is easier to find and punish criminals.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Is Bugs tabulating our responses and presenting them in numeric form makes his data gathering easier?

Yes.

Incidentally, your contributions disappoint me.

[Dinner]

1. Aging population - Grandparents are less likely to break the law then teen punks.
2. Over all poverty has gone down since the 60's to 70's so fewer poor people.
3. Police enforcement & deterrence has gotten better so career criminals now stay in jail for their entire lives while the younger folks decide it isn't worth it.
4. Less social interaction. Bored young people no longer hang out at the park looking for trouble and instead surf the net or play X-Box which means less opportunity to be involved in crime.

[Dinner]

Oh, I forgot. Social mobility for minorities has increased greatly. Even if you were a really smart black kid in the late 60's it was hard to get a job at the white dominated firm which wasn't low paying where as now more jobs and better types of jobs are open to folks who previously would have been marginalized.

[Al B. Sure!]

Yes.

Incidentally, your contributions disappoint me.

Yet I'm the only person here from the ghetto so just ignore what I say

Granted, I'm young enough where I can't speak first-hand about the highest crime in the late 80's, early 90's but it's not like I don't know from people older than me.

[Dinner]

Excuse me? Why would I need to?

Less crack usage. I said it. What's the point of me specifying #2?

I see how it is. I do something it's wrong. Everybody else does the exact same thing and it's all dandy. Real logical place this Apolyton is. It's the ****ing twilight zone.

Crack didn't take off until the 80's but despite all the media coverage about gangs and drive by shootings violent crime in the 80's was lower then the 70's.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Yet I'm the only person here from the ghetto so just ignore what I say

If I want to learn about psychotropic drug testing I'm not going to ask a guinea pig. Go eat your lettuce.

[Al B. Sure!]

Crack didn't take off until the 80's but despite all the media coverage about gangs and drive by shootings violent crime in the 80's was lower then the 70's.

The Law of Oerdin is Always Wrong NEVER FAILS!!!

US Violent crime rate:

[giblets]

Looks like #6 might have a point:

[Dinner]

The Law of Oerdin is Always Wrong NEVER FAILS!!!

US Violent crime rate:

I'm not sure where you got that graph but the FBI says "serious crimes" peaked by 1980 (probably in the late 70's but the graph doesn't show every year) and has been going down ever since. Please note crack wasn't big until the mid80's so your claims about crack are wrong.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Berzerker]

2. The fall in violent crime that began in the early 90s can be partly explained by the fall in demand for crack, says Prof Blumstein, co-author of The Crime Drop in America. Word got round about the dangers of crack use and - aided by aggressive policing - the gun violence associated with its supply decreased. The converse had happened in 1985, when the incarceration of dealers led to a spiral of violence, as younger and more reckless suppliers took their place.

the tougher laws didn't apply to minors, so naturally recruitment of minors exploded as gangs and dealers tried to avoid the increased penalties for adults.

[SlowwHand]

All crime, not just drug crimes.

[Dinner]

the tougher laws didn't apply to minors, so naturally recruitment of minors exploded as gangs and dealers tried to avoid the increased penalties for adults.

Yep. Sad but true.

[C0ckney]

Looks like #6 might have a point:

wow, so close to 1/100 males in the US is locked up behind bars. that's an incredible incarceration rate.