ipl-logo

Why Crime Fell In The 1990s: The Decrease In Crime

783 Words4 Pages

Contrary to the common belief, crime has been on the decline for the past three decades. Yet, news and media have been covering crime more than ever, resulting in the public belief that crime is at an all time high. The sharp drop in crime since the early 1990s has left experts curious to discover the reasons for the decrease in crime. As I compare the article Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors that Explain the Decline and Six that Do Not by Steven D. Levitt and the article Evaluating Contemporary Crime Drop(s) in America, New York City, and Many Other Places by Eric P. Baumer and Kevin T. Wolff, I will briefly describe the articles, compare their agreements and disagreements, as well as discuss my personal preferences. …show more content…

Many factors of the crack epidemic influenced the crime drop. First, the “precipitous rise in crack cocaine in the mid-to-late 1980s in America” made violence and crime increase drastically (Baumer and Wolff, 2014, p. 21). Since crime shot up, it made statistics seem to drop even more in the 1990s, especially for homicides, as stated by Levitt (2004). The shift from young people to a “graying” society is another point at which Baumer, Wolff and Levitt can all agree could be a cause for the crime drop of the 1990s (Baumer and Wolff, 2014, p. 20). As Levitt (2004) stated “those over the age of 65 experience victimization rates for serious violent crime that are less than one-tenth of those of teenagers” (p. 171) and since the young population got older, the crime followed in trend.
Disagreements
One of Levitt’s main four causes of the 1990s crime was the legalization of abortion in the 1970s. Levitt argued that unwanted children were at higher risk for crime and the legalization of abortion reduced the number of unwanted children. His hypothesis was brought about because “the five states that allowed abortion in 1970… experienced declines in crime rates earlier than the rest of the country” (Levitt, 2004, p. 182). His statistics are compelling, but the reasoning seems slightly irrelevant, as argued by Baumer and

Show More
Related

  • American West Transformation

    486 Words  | 2 Pages

    Transformation of the West Introduction The American West was vastly transformed during the “Gilded Age”. As railroads traversed the nation, crime became a major problem, and the rise of industry prompted a response by environmentalists. As far-reaching as the transformation of Western civilization since the Renaissance had been, I don’t think that anyone around 1800 could have predicted the even more profound changes that would occur in the nineteenth century.

    Read More

  • Summary Of How New York Won The War On Crime By Steve Chapman

    283 Words  | 2 Pages

    Crime itself is an innate part of society, some may view it as a necessary component in one's society. New York city has had a history of high crime rates at one time. In the article, “How New York won the War on Crime” by Steve Chapman, the author discuss how New York City during the 1960s to the 1980s was viewed as “chaotic”, and mentioned that in 1984 there were at least “5 murders a day”. However, New York City now is not the same one it was during that time. The NYPD website provides a graph describing the crime rates and population growth in New York City between 1990s to to 2014.

    Read More

  • Gordon Witkin The Crime Bust Analysis

    799 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the article “The Crime Bust” by Gordon Witkin, it is introduced that in 1994, after a 9 year soar in crime rates, they began falling (1). According to preliminary figures released by the FBI, all across the board, the amount of crime committals were declining at a drastic rate. (Witkin 1). To determine the source of this sudden decline, several factors were examined, such as the economy, dismissed as “Robbery and burglary fluctuate with economic conditions--but murders generally do not…” (Witkin, 1-2) Prevention and domestic abuse were also discredited since “Studies show that prevention programs don’t work, and others may or may not be effective…” and “...in 1996, there were only 447 fewer ‘domestics’ than in 1993, accounting for just 9 percent of the murder reduction.”

    Read More

  • Summary Of Malcolm Gladwell The Power Of Context

    1251 Words  | 6 Pages

    Goetz shot the four men and became a known figure in New York for standing up against “dangerous criminals.” However, in the 1990s when Goetz went to trial court, New York’s crime rate had declined at a surprising rate and citizens viewed him as a murderer and racist for his actions on the subway. In “The Power of Context,” Gladwell expands into his own personal theories behind the city’s decline in crime. He brings attention to two hypotheses: the power of context and the broken-window hypothesis. The broken-window hypothesis was implemented by New York leaders in collaboration with the police department to take stricter action with minor crimes occurring in the city, such as graffiti and small burglaries.

    Read More

  • Bill Bratton's Broken Windows Theory

    556 Words  | 3 Pages

    This theory was established to prevent more serious crime from occurring over time. This article examined the effects of the Broken Windows Policing Approach involving these following topics under the direction of Bill Bratton’s Tenue: implementations, success, and failures. It also demonstrates whether or not the “Broken Windows Effect” has a minimal impact on the crime rate throughout the Bill Bratton’s era and did he remained “an exemplar of “good ‘broken windows’ practice” during his two-year stretch as NYPD commissioner under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Based on this concept, the New York City Police Department implemented a “zero tolerance” policy for policing petty

    Read More

  • Moral Arguments In Freakonimics

    1379 Words  | 6 Pages

    A position that Levitt and Dubner do agree on is that “yes indeed, additional police substantially lower the crime rate.” However, Levitt and Dubner have an alternate theory to answer their proposed question. Roe v wade lowered the crime rate in the 1990s. To support this theory Levitt and Dubner offer evidence-showing woman who were likely to get an abortion when it became legal to woman who would have to raise a child in a high-risk household. By focusing on the woman who “was unmarried or in her teens or poor, and sometimes all three” Levitt and Dubner show the reader how having the opportunity to terminate a pregnancy can lower the crime rate years down the road.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Levitt And Dubner's Freakonomics

    763 Words  | 4 Pages

    Levitt and Dubner introduces a successful argument that could actually make the reader believe that abortion did have an effect on crime rates decreasing in the 1990’s. Levitt and Dubner spend a lot of time convincing the reader how in reality policemen, stricter gun laws, and drug market changes are not the main reason for the decrease in crime rates. Instead, they begin to explain that the primary reason for the decrease in crime rates in the 1990 's is the legalization of abortion. The legalization of abortion occurred right after the case

    Read More

  • Bring Back Flogging Analysis

    425 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some politicians say cities have become much safer because of the success of the criminal justice system. Jacoby says, “To ease the pressure, nearly all convicted felons are released early -- or not locked up at all.” 58 percent of all murders and 98 percent of all burglaries not result in a prison term. Most of these convicted criminals are on the streets without parole supervision or

    Read More

  • Mass Incarceration Research

    1365 Words  | 6 Pages

    The education children receive in predominantly black neighborhoods is often sub-par, with high dropout rates. Subsequently 65% of state inmates have not completed high school. Another major issue is job opportunities; in major cities with a high black population the ability to obtain and keep a decent paying job is difficult and therefore crime is one of the only solutions. More than 50% of inmates earned less than $10,000 a year, were unemployed, or part time (8E p. 17). The close correlation between black Americans and crime is explained as

    Read More

  • The New Jim Crow Essay

    421 Words  | 2 Pages

    Making The War on Drug a top priority meant that other serious crimes like rape and murder would not be considered important as drug crimes. The federalization of drug as crime violated beliefs of states’ rights as street crime is what necessitates law enforcement. In the breathtaking book, “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, “Huge cash grants were made to those law enforcement agencies that were willing to make drug-law enforcement a top priority”(73). Putting money on agencies to go towards a specialized narcotics task force meant that other more serious crimes are not taken as serious as drugs crimes. There are grand theft and violent assaults, which are a greater threat to communities than illegal drug use and abuse.

    Read More

  • Tough On Crime Policy Analysis

    784 Words  | 4 Pages

    In addition to greatly affecting the otherwise unlikely citizens of America, Tough on Crime policies have greatly affected minority groups in America; perhaps more so than of any other group of citizens. To begin, from the 1980 on through the year 1995, the incarceration rates among drug offenders increased by more than 1000 percent. Notably, by the year 1995 one out of every four inmates in any given correctional facility was a drug offender. In addition of that 1000 percent increase, drug offenders accounted for more than 80 percent of the total growth in the federal inmate population and 50 percent of the growth of the state prison population from 1985 to 1995 (Stith, web). In addition, once in the system, the probability of receiving harsher

    Read More

  • How Did The Great Depression Affect Middle Class Americans

    1742 Words  | 7 Pages

    Stud Terkel quoted in his book "Hard Times," “What I remember most of those times is that poverty creates desperation, and desperation creates violence.” (pg. 195). During the Hard Times crime rate increased as the family lost everything. This ultimately led people, to do anything to gain money. Hence, the growth in crime

    Read More

  • Juvenile Crime Annotated Bibliography

    1043 Words  | 5 Pages

    Annotated bibliography Childress, S. (2016, June 2). More States Consider Raising the Age for Juvenile Crime. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/more-states-consider-raising-the-age-for-juvenile-crime/ More states are considering to raising the age for juvenile crimes before being tried as adult because young offender's mental capacity. The idea is to cut the cost of incarcerate young offender in adult prison and ensure offenders to receive proper education and specialized care to change their behavior. Putting children in adult prison does not deter crime.

    Read More

  • Poverty In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

    1445 Words  | 6 Pages

    Families that are poor or have a low income are more likely to commit crimes for the purpose of their own needs to survive. “It is a fact that neighborhoods where the poor are concentrated are more prone to high crime rates, and poor residents are the most common victims of crimes” (1). The best explanation for this is that poorer people have the same needs as a regular middle-class citizen. The poor citizens need certain things to help him or her live a healthy life, such as healthcare, food stamps, and more employment options. One may argue that healthcare is too expensive and that food stamps have been taken away from many people.

    Read More

  • Essay On Poverty And Crime

    832 Words  | 4 Pages

    Poverty is defined as the state of being unable to fulfill basic needs of human beings. Poverty is the lack of resources leading to physical deprivation. Poor people are unable to fulfill basic survival needs such as food, clothing, shelter. These are the needs of lowest order and assume top priority. Poor people are unknown of their lack of voice, power, and rights, which leads them to exploitation.

    Read More

More about Why Crime Fell In The 1990s: The Decrease In Crime

Open Document