Should We Be Talking About a "Crime Dividend"?
…kind of “crime dividend” (or, perhaps, “safety dividend”) should we expect? Decreased crime is of course its own reward. But with crime falling so dramatically across so many dimensions for…
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz combs through mountains of information to find advice for everyday life….
…kind of “crime dividend” (or, perhaps, “safety dividend”) should we expect? Decreased crime is of course its own reward. But with crime falling so dramatically across so many dimensions for…
The dollar has taken serious hits recently, not only continuing to fall against the euro but being caught even by the Canadian loonie. From the long view, however, the dollar’s…
Dubner and his Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt answer your questions about crime, traffic, real-estate agents, the Ph.D. glut, and how to not get eaten by a bear.
Six months ago I blogged about how the media reported the crime statistics released by the FBI at that time. All the headlines screamed that a new crime wave was…
…Steeper Rise From the Los Angeles Times: Violent Crime Rises Again From the Philadelphia Inquirer: Rise in Violent Crimes is Higher than Expected It is official. The next crime wave…
The world is a more peaceful place today that at any time in history — by a long, long shot.
…declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well — CALLER: Well, I don’t think…
In June, NPR’s Planet Money reported on the billion-dollar stash of unused dollar coins piling up at the Federal Reserve. At the time, there were $1.2 billion worth of dollar…
Why are humans so eager for magic-bullet solutions? Can you explain how a pen works? And how does Angela feel about being forever branded “the grit lady”?…
Incarcerated people grow crops, fight wildfires, and manufacture everything from prescription glasses to highway signs — often for pennies an hour. Zachary Crockett takes the next exit, in this special…
…that the legalization of abortion in the 1970s reduced crime in the 1990s. The logic is simple: unwanted children have an increased risk of growing up to be criminals, and…
…Doing the instrumental variables estimation has a bigger impact on property crime than on violent crime. All four of the instrumental variables estimates of legalized abortion on property crime are…
…pennies. So, get rid of pennies-few rich countries have a coin so worthless; and no other coin costs more to manufacture than it is worth. The problem is America’s strong…
Because the abortion/crime theory put forward by Steve Levitt and John Donohue in this 2001 paper was so jarring, on so many levels, it drew great interest and occasional controversy….
Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, has big ambitions but knows he must first master the small stuff. He’s also a polymath who relies heavily on data and new…
…here, when Dubner took on French political scientist Sebastien Roche and his theory that sport causes crime. More recently, Freakonomics contributor Justin Wolfers reported on a study showing that crime…
Crime trends have been mixed in the last few years, with some crimes increasing (mostly involving violence) and others declining (the majority of property crimes). In spite of the facts,…
The major news media (see for instance here and here) have been reporting recently on the hypothesis that banning lead from gasoline caused a reduction in crime. This follows a…
Incarcerated people grow crops, fight wildfires, and manufacture everything from motor oil to prescription glasses — often for pennies per hour. Zachary Crockett reports from North Carolina….
…much time talking about crime is a wonderful thing. It means that the nationwide crime downturn has allowed people to worry about other things — especially, at the moment, the…
…via Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) instead of checks (which are easily converted to crime-fueling cash): It has been long recognized that cash plays a critical role in fueling street crime…
(Photo: Charleston’s TheDigitel) We have to have Wi-Fi available everywhere — I have withdrawal symptoms if I can’t do my email and check the web often. Recognizing this, many stores…
We now have more access to TV, movies, and streaming entertainment than anytime in history. So what do we actually know about what all that screen time does to us?…
It facilitates crime, bribery, and tax evasion – and yet some governments (including ours) are printing more cash than ever. Other countries, meanwhile, are ditching cash entirely. And if Star…
…outlet for young men and perhaps keeps them out of trouble. To the contrary, Roche contends, “the practice of sport never reduces the number of crimes” and, furthermore, sports can…
…York Times in this fascinating article, the hurricane was “one of the greatest crime-control tools ever deployed against a high-crime city.” If Mr. Scharf wants some advice in dealing with…
…harbinger of future crime reductions, not future crime increases. The only argument one could make for declining abortions in the 1990s leading to rising crime rates down the road would…
Over the weekend, the Washington Post published an article suggesting that much of the decline in crime in the 1990s may have been due to the reduction of childhood lead…
