Crime Trends
The decade during which violent crime rates dropped dramatically in the United States.
What is the 1990's?
The legalization of this controversial procedure in the 1970s was cited as a long-term factor in reducing crime rates.
What is abortion?
The hypothesis that the legalization of abortion in 1973 reduced crime decades later associated with this economist.
(hint : one of the authors)
Who is Steven Levitt?
The "Broken Windows" policing strategy focuses on addressing these types of crimes to prevent larger ones.
What are minor crimes?
This measure of unlawful (deviant) behaviour includes theft, violence, and property damage.
hint : shoplifting is an example of "petty ____"
What is Crime?
This economic phenomenon of the 1990s, often considered a contributor to lower crime rates, involved high employment and a booming stock market.
What is the economic boom?
Critics argue that this type of policy explanation for crime trends fail to account for moral and ethical concerns.
What are utilitarian explanations?
: an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce sadness, or the reverse of happiness
A significant increase in the number of police officers is referred to as this strategy.
What is police expansion?
One reason people thought crime declined was the increased imprisonment rate, which is also referred to as this "effect".
What is Incapacitation?
The decline of this drug epidemic, which surged in the 1980s, helped reduce crime.
What is the crack cocaine epidemic?
The abortion hypothesis rests on the idea that fewer of these individuals, often at higher risk for criminal behaviour, were born after 1973.
What are unwanted children?
The implementation of these laws requiring mandatory sentences for repeat offenders contributed to crime reduction.
(ex. ___ strikes and you're out, used in baseball)
What are "three-strikes" laws?
The term for the peak in crime rates experienced in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
What is the Crime Wave?
A decline in the population of this specific age group contributed to lower crime rates.
What are young men?
More colloquially called "knock-on" effects, are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen.
What are "unintended consequences"?
Targeted policing strategies in cities like New York during the 1990s focused on these "hot spots".
What are high-crime areas?
This term describes changes in criminal activity unrelated to police efforts.
(hint : inequality, education, income)
What are societal factors?
This controversial sociological theory argues that fewer unwanted children born after 1973 contributed to the reduced crime rates.
What is the "abortion-crime link"?
Levitt's hypothesis about crime and abortion has been challenged on the basis of this type of statistical analysis.
What is causation versus correlation?
Critics argue that this practice of overly aggressive policing often disproportionately affects marginalized communities.
What is Racial Profiling?