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Problem with the CC argument is that this trend has been witnessed in other countries that have no such gun laws. And if the US was a special case, how would it

Problem with the CC argument is that this trend has been witnessed in other countries that have no such gun laws. And if the US was a special case, how would it explain all the cities that saw a drop in crime with restrictive gun laws (Several of which were deemed unconstitutional a decade after the crime drop began?) As for youth distractions: The internet did not have significant saturation until the 00s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_the_United_States seems to indicate that in 2000, only 2.5% of Internet users had broadband. Video games exploded in popularity in the 1980s while crime was still rising - not to mention this was a time when arcades were far more prolific, so you could make the argument that entertainment was more accessible to youths with families that couldn't afford video game systems in 1980 than 1990 onward.

vacri 13y ago
Going out to an arcade puts you out and about. And when the money runs out, the arcade has no further interest for you. There's no money to run out with a video game at home. While there were some homes with consoles and computers in the 80s, home computers didn't really take off for the general public until the 90s, and you see also that it was the 90s when the game industry at home really took off. You don't need the internet to play video games. As for CC, it should be clear I'm not fond of their arguments :)
- spamizbad 13y ago
  I want to believe but... Looking at crime stats by age and gender of arrest [1] You see an across-the-board decline for men and women. You're telling me a 60 year old woman was too busy playing Doom on a 486 to commit a violent crime? [1] http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/additional-ucr-publications/age_race_arrest93-01.pdf http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/additional-ucr-publicat...
  - vacri 13y ago
    So, keeping in context of my original comment, do you have statistics for how many 60-year-old women are engaged in teenage delinquency? Keep in mind that the period you're talking about in the US (1993+) is around the start of hysterical anti-crime politicking, with a soaring incarceration rate, and heavily increased funding for policing. Or for something more relevant to 60-year-old women in the 90s, how about it being more socially acceptable to leave an abusive husband? Or better social support services than previously? There's a lot of different things that affect crime - I'm not saying in the slightest that any one thing is responsible for crime or lack thereof.

vacri 13y ago

Going out to an arcade puts you out and about. And when the money runs out, the arcade has no further interest for you. There's no money to run out with a video game at home. While there were some homes with consoles and computers in the 80s, home computers didn't really take off for the general public until the 90s, and you see also that it was the 90s when the game industry at home really took off. You don't need the internet to play video games. As for CC, it should be clear I'm not fond of their arguments :)

spamizbad 13y ago
I want to believe but... Looking at crime stats by age and gender of arrest [1] You see an across-the-board decline for men and women. You're telling me a 60 year old woman was too busy playing Doom on a 486 to commit a violent crime? [1] http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/additional-ucr-publications/age_race_arrest93-01.pdf http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/additional-ucr-publicat...
- vacri 13y ago
  So, keeping in context of my original comment, do you have statistics for how many 60-year-old women are engaged in teenage delinquency? Keep in mind that the period you're talking about in the US (1993+) is around the start of hysterical anti-crime politicking, with a soaring incarceration rate, and heavily increased funding for policing. Or for something more relevant to 60-year-old women in the 90s, how about it being more socially acceptable to leave an abusive husband? Or better social support services than previously? There's a lot of different things that affect crime - I'm not saying in the slightest that any one thing is responsible for crime or lack thereof.