Yes, there was a crime spike around the early '90s. Here's the fascinating thing: it went away, everywhere. It didn't just go away in some cities that were "tou

Yes, there was a crime spike around the early '90s. Here's the fascinating thing: it went away, everywhere. It didn't just go away in some cities that were "tough on crime" and stick around elsewhere. It went away in every city across the nation, regardless of their local policing. It was a transient phenomenon that probably would have gone away even if no changes happened to the criminal justice system. Also, one thing that's worth understanding here is that a group of individuals all working under the same values system responding to the same stimuli will typically exhibit the same responses, which can often have the appearance of collusion or organization. And in a way it is, through the shared values system, but not in the overt way many think. That doesn't make the results any more palatable.