Abortion and Crime? Related?
A recent book titled Freakonomics by Steven Lewitt. This contriversal book is aboutthe hidden economics behind every day problems in society. One chapter of the book has become a large dispute between economists everywhere. The chapter deals with abortion and crime rates. The theory, quoting the artical, "Unwanted children are more likely to become troubled adolescents, prone to crime and drug use, than are wanted children. When abortion was legalized in the 1970s, a whole generation of unwanted births were averted, leading to a drop in crime nearly two decades later when this phantom generation would have come of age."
Some economist are now saying that Lewitts reasoning is very faulty. And that he left out some major points to consider. After reading this artical do you think that this is a good theory or has Lewitt got it all wrong? What do you think is the reason for the crime drop?
5 comments:
I don't think that Lewitt took in to consideration all the other possible reasons for the crime drop. This reminds me of the controversial remarks that former Education Secretary William Bennett made in response to a question of this very same nature. Bennett said, "... you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Obviously, most level-headed people would think this was a ridiculous (to say the least) statement.
There are many different possibilities for a crime drop. It may be that less children are growing up in violent home situations, better police leadership, more options for after school activities, better parenting, alcohol and drug prevention, etc.
I think Lewitt just used coorelation and not actual facts to come up with this theory. Crime has been dropping because of a steady increase in the number of people receiving higher educations. It is noted that higher education makes people less prone to committing a crime. Lewitt needs to do a little bit more research in order to back up his theory about abortion and crime rates.
Lewitt was wrong in his accusation. As Kelly stated he just used coorelation instead of hard facts. There are many reasons why crime would have fallen. Most people today are better educated to make correct decisions. Also there have been known cases of wanted children who have committed crimes. Lewitt needs to further research before he makes such harsh accusations.
I believe that abortion and crime rates are similar, however not one being the result of the other. Both of these issues probably to tend to happen in lower income areas.
I tend to agree his assumption is correct. I think a lot of the time that babies who are born into situations where abortion was or should have been considered, are babies whos parents (probably teenagers) weren't ready to become parents, and or lack a high level of responisibilty. Obviously responsibility is a big factor, if not the biggest factor in raising a child. I have friends who had babies when they possibly should have chose to have an abortion, and i have to say I'd think their kid will be more likely to fall down the wrong path compared to two grown, responsible people ready to have a child.
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