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The other article that was posted here today about the US prison problem noted that crime went down significantly after prices of crack cocaine dropped, which w

• rayiner 12y ago
  The per capita homicide rate in the U.S. more than doubled from 1950 to 1973, in a consistent trend. The peak happened in 1980, but most of the increase happened in the late 1960's. Nixon didn't even coin the term "war on drugs" until 1971, and the real crackdown and jump in incarceration didn't happen until Reagan in the 1980's. The drug war isn't helping, of course, but its unlikely to be the root cause given the timing of things. More likely the root cause is the ghettoization of the cities due to white flight and wealth flight in the 1950's and 1960's, along with the continued effects of trade liberalization taking away low-skill jobs.