The Gang Tax
…(or any other so-called “criminal”) to live inside the housing unit. These laws rarely lead to reductions in gang membership, gang violence, or gang crime. In fact, police officers I…
He was once the most lionized athlete on the planet, with seven straight Tour de France wins and a victory over cancer too. Then the doping charges caught up with…
Most people don’t enjoy the simple, boring act of putting money in a savings account. But we do love to play the lottery. So what if you combine the two,…
In her new book The Two-Parent Privilege, the economist Melissa Kearney says it’s time for liberals to face the facts: U.S. marriage rates have plummeted but the babies keep coming,…
…(or any other so-called “criminal”) to live inside the housing unit. These laws rarely lead to reductions in gang membership, gang violence, or gang crime. In fact, police officers I…
…on any given day, yet little is known whether such a penalty deters future crime or interrupts social and human capital formation in a way that increases the likelihood of…
Also: what is the most significant choice you will ever make?…
…Wilson, the university’s professor of criminology. He said: “Far from the media portrayal of hits being conducted inside smoky rooms, frequented by members of an organized crime gang, British hits…
Harvard economist Claudia Goldin and Steve talk about how inflexible jobs and family responsibilities make it harder for women to earn wages equal to their male counterparts. But could Covid…
…a crime prevention strategy; it was a crime promotion strategy. (Yes!, p. 22) I’m not calling for the writers of Friday Night Lights to change the story arc. But Cialdini’s…
…with, and apply them to government. In Real Change, I cite New York City’s dramatic turnaround in fighting crime as an example of government that works. They did this through…
The former chairman of the Obama administration’s Council of Economic Advisors tells Steve how improv comedy was a better training ground for teaching than a Ph.D. from M.I.T., and why…
…unfortunate, but should not be surprising if we believe that crime and therefore policing are disproportionally concentrated in minority-rich neighborhoods. However, mere disparate impact is not the same as impermissible…
According to the FBI’s recently released second quarter Bank Crime statistics, bank robbers are most likely to rob a bank between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Friday; more robbers…
The end of an era – Friendly’s files for bankruptcy. French nobility is still alive, but not exactly well. Is New York really safer, adjusted for crime inflation? Engineering a…
…abusers, while noting that most U.S. states have enacted statutes calling for real-life punishment of extreme online harassement. Crime in Second Life isn’t a new phenomenon, and users have criticized…
Americans are so accustomed to the standard intersection that we rarely consider how dangerous it can be — as well as costly, time-wasting, and polluting. Is it time to embrace…
…of the piece, however. Landesman argues that the gang problem is worse than it has ever been, and that gang violence hasn’t dropped the way other crimes have. A quick…
In her new book The Two-Parent Privilege, the economist Melissa Kearney says it’s time for liberals to face the facts: U.S. marriage rates have plummeted but the babies keep coming,…
…Gallup (Jan. 25-28, 2007) finds Mayor Giuliani also leads among Republicans on 7 of 10 key issues including terrorism, the economy, healthcare and fighting crime. He also leads on 11…
Steve is on a mission to reform math education, and Sarah Hart is ready to join the cause. In her return visit to the show, Sarah explains how patterns are…
…each crash had a criminal record. They found that drivers who contributed to accidents were much more likely than the general public to have been guilty of violent crime, vandalism,…
…them away from crime. As such, gangs were part of a coalition of left-leaning social service agencies and political activists struggling to cope with the effects of migration and globalization…
Licensing began with medicine and law; now it extends to 20 percent of the U.S. workforce, including hair stylists and auctioneers. In a new book, the legal scholar Rebecca Allensworth…
…review of the book is quite substantial; Steve Sailer, who has vigorously argued against the link between Roe v. Wade and falling crime (a Google search of “Sailer” and “Freakonomics”…
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…
…is much easier to engage in transactions — nothing needs to be done face-to-face, thus reducing the risk to traffickers. Also, organized crime is getting involved since the trade is…
She spent nearly a decade as an undercover C.I.A. operative working to prevent terrorism. More recently, she hosted The Business of Drugs on Netflix. Amaryllis Fox — now Kennedy —…
…in the crime rate — and the removal of lead from house paint has been linked to the crime drop of the 1990’s (as Levitt blogged about here). Now the…
A reader named Mark Kozel writes to say: I heard that Chicago will be pouring up to $14 million into police overtime to prevent murder and violent crime. It got…
In this interview, first heard on Freakonomics Radio last year, Steve talks with the former top adviser to presidents Clinton and Obama, about his record — and his reputation. And…