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An article that was on HN 8 months ago puts forth evidence to support that the rise and fall in violent crime follows the introduction and elimination of leaded
by muraiki 13y ago
An article that was on HN 8 months ago puts forth evidence to support that the rise and fall in violent crime follows the introduction and elimination of leaded gasoline. It sounds strange but every single country the researchers have studied exhibited the same phenomenon. Even matching lead contamination at the neighborhood level fits with crime maps.
Article: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-li...
HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5006368 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5006368
- busterarm 13y agoAt this point I think it's hard to say that it falls on one thing. There's definitely a combination of factors that have led to reduced crime rates. Another one that I've seen floated around as responsible was the rapid growth of emergency medicine in the late 1960s. The idea being that injuries were much less likely to kill someone and people were that much more likely to retaliate. Another good theory is how crime rates are pretty much proportional to birth rates. The idea being that it's resource competition.
- muraiki 13y agoI understand what you're saying. I don't think the article is saying that only lead is responsible, though. However, it does say that lead levels explain up to 90% of the variation in violent crime in America. I have no knowledge of statistics, but that sounds pretty impressive.