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The article specifically mentions the lead-crime hypothesis as a different example of hypothesized linkages between air pollution and crime. It seems exceptiona
by Armisael16 7y ago
The article specifically mentions the lead-crime hypothesis as a different example of hypothesized linkages between air pollution and crime. It seems exceptionally likely that it isn’t what they’re looking at.
This paper specifically looks at short term air pollution effect (ie, the kinds that will measurably rise and fall in different parts of a city over an 8-year span). Lead takes so long to affect a single person (since it mostly harms brain development in children, but crimes are mostly not committed by children) that it almost certainly being meaningfully measured here.
- mirthflat83 7y agoHacker news and not reading the article before commenting name a more classic combination
- huffmsa 7y agoOf course I didn't read the article. I hear it's paywall, and I and the economist's paywall really don't get along. But, it being a short term study doesn't change much. A temporary increase in pollutants will serve to exacerbate underlying conditions. Supposing areas which experience the largest increase in the short term were also susceptible to higher levels historical, and most impacted by previous short term increases and we're back where we started.
- Symmetry 7y agoAnd we're currently in this weird situation where older criminals are more violent than younger criminals, in contravention of how things typically go, because older criminals were exposed to lead as children.