|
|
|
|
|
Legalized Abortion And Crime EffectThe legalized abortion and crime effect is the theory that the legalization of abortion in the United States, due to Roe v Wade, has reduced the number of unwanted children -children who are more likely to become criminals- and thus reducing crime in recent years. In short, fewer unwanted children leads to fewer crimes. Although many individuals have suggested this correlation in the past, perhaps the two academics that are most notably associated with this theory are Steven Levitt of the University of Chicago and John Donohue of Yale University with their paper The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime, 2001. Levitt and Donohue have argued in their paper using statistics that males aged 18 to 24 are most likely to commit crimes. As well the data suggest that crime has started to decline starting in 1992. Levitt and Donohue suggested that the absence of these unwanted aborted children in 1977 has lead to a reduction in crime 18 years later starting in 1992 and dropping sharply in 1995, just as these individuals reached 18. As well, if this theory holds states that had abortion legalized earlier and more wide spread should have the largest reductions in crime. Levitt and Donohue's study indicates that this indeed has happened:California, New York,Alaska, Washington and Hawaii had steeper drops in crime and had had legalized abortion before Roe v Wade. Criticisms One criticism is that since the data methodology used was correlational statistics cause and effect cannot be determined, only suggested. Thus it is possible that another factor, other than abortion, may have caused crime to drop. Any other explanation for this result, however, would need to be consistent with the fact that crime rates in states with high abortion rates and states with low abortion rates track each other closely for decades, before suddenly diverging at precisely the time the abortion hypothesis predicts. See also * Roe effect
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|