Title: What Caused Crime to Decline in the U.S.? - The Atlantic
Headings: What Caused the Great Crime Decline in the U.S.?
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What Caused the Great Crime Decline in the U.S.?
I remember the 1990s as a pretty good time for economic growth. Maybe that offered less incentive for crime.
I’m a little skeptical a Supreme Court opinion could reduce crime rates two decades later.

Content: One complication is the prevalence of illegal abortion before ’73. The Guttmacher Institute estimates between 700,000 and 800,000 women terminated their pregnancies each year in the decades preceding Roe. If large numbers of women prevented unwanted births prior to the ruling, the sudden availability of legal abortion might not have radically changed the overall number. Another thought: How does the theory scale across the globe? Crime rates rose and fell in other industrialized countries in tandem with the United States over the past 50 years. Did they see similar declines when they liberalized their abortion laws? Demonstrating its effect in lowering foreign crime rates would strengthen the argument for its role in the U.S. decline, too. ANSWER
Wait, if other countries also had similar rises and declines in crime, that suggests the decline’s cause might be a factor that crosses borders. I think I read a Mother Jones article about something like this a few years ago…
QUESTION
Are you thinking of lead?