Abortion Did NOT Reduce the Crime Rate

1952 Words4 Pages

Abortion has and always will continue to be a very controversial issue. This issue of terminating a life, and the right of an individual in making that decision, was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. The general argument carried in the Roe v. Wade decision was that attempts by any level of government to restrict access to abortion violated a person's 4th Amendment rights by interfering in the private relationship between a patient and a doctor (Justia.com , 2011).

Could it be that the government’s intervention by legalizing abortion in the Roe v. Wade decision lead to the dramatic reduction in crime? Did the government inadvertently save my life by preventing the birth of criminals? This paper will first explore the generally accepted theories advanced as to why the crime drop has occurred. Secondly, explain the theories behind Levitt and Dubner’s reasoning for the crime drop due to the legalization of abortion. And lastly, explain how researchers have used statistical data to negate Levitt and Dubner’s abortion theory, and assert that the crime drop was due to a confluence of events which when taken as whole all played a role in reducing crime in the United States.

Many factors may have led to the decrease in crime, but there are five very plausible explanatory factors as causal to the crime decline. The first is the demographic change, specifically referring to the changing composition of the population (Rosenfeld, 2011). Crime is a young mans game, and the aging of the baby boom generation is an important factor behind the drop, because older populations generally commit fewer crimes (Rosenfeld, 2011).

The second factor is growth in imprisonment (Rosenfeld, 2011). This factor is controversial in that some st...

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...st of abortion and crime. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 91, 112-123.

Justia.com . (2011). U.S. Supreme Court Center: Roe v. wade 410 u.s. 113 (1973). Retrieved February 7, 2012, from Justia.com: http://Supreme.justia.com/cases/Federal/us/410/113/case.html

Levitt, S. D., & Dubner, S. J. (2009). Freakomomics. New York: Harper Perennial.

Rosenfeld, R. (2011). Changing Crime Rates. In J. Wilson, & J. Petersilia, Crime and Public Policy (pp. 559-588). New York: Oxford University Press.

Rosenfeld, R., & Fornado, R. (2007). The impact of economic conditions on robbery and property crime: The role of consumer sentiment. Criminology, 45, 735-769.

Travis, J., & Waul, M. (2002). Reflections on the crime decline: Lessons for the future. Proceedings from the Urban Institute Crime Decline Forum (pp. 1-38). Washington, D. C.: Urban Institute Justice Policy Center.

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