Where Have All The Criminals Gone Summary

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Reading Analysis of

“Where have All the Criminals Gone”

Executive summary

This essay gives a summary of chapter 4 of Stephen Leavitt and Steve Dubner’s “Freakonomics.” Chapter 4 of the book reads, “Where have All the Criminals Gone.” The summary utilizes “Steps for Better Thinking” model constructed by Wolcott. This model helps the reader in breaking down complex pieces of literature into simpler bits to facilitate the process of critical thinking. This essay makes the best use of Wolcott’s model given the fact that chapter 4 of “Freakonomics” gives the ideal situation in which the practical aspect of the model can be exploited.

Formulation of the problem

“Where have All the Criminals Gone” tries to construct the primary cause of a drop in crime rates recorded in the 1990s. The chapter considers various causes, but the authors are more inclined towards the assertion that abortion is the primary cause of a decline in crime rates during

that that period. The Roe v Wade case culminated in a Supreme Court ruling that sanctioned abortion in America. Following this ruling, there was a substantial drop in crime rates in the following years attributed to the number of abortions performed. The authors argue that most criminals’ lives were characterized by poverty and unhappiness, which made them defect to criminal activities. Therefore, abortions made sure that no children would be born in destitute conditions, thus the rate of young people who turned into criminals was minimized.
Using relevant information
The authors have used the relevant information to come up with their explanation and conclusions.

According to Leavitt and Dubner, crime rates reached the lowest level in the 1990s, in the history of America. Nonviolent crime rates declined at a rate that had never been witnessed before. The authors gathered data regarding abortion trends after its legalization and noted the surging numbers. On a similar account, they supported their claims using statistical facts collected in five different states that sanctioned abortion before the Roe v. Wade court ruling. From this data, it was observed that states with the most abortion rates in the 1970s experienced lower crime rates compared to states whose abortions were low in the 1970s. However, before the 1980s, there was no any concrete linkage between crime and abortion rates. Therefore, the argument proposed by Leavitt and Dubner are built on a strong correlation between the two variables, which has been statistically and econometrically

proved.
In addition, the authors support their claim further by borrowing ideas to from the Romanian empire during the reign of Nicolae Ceausescu who proscribed abortion in 1966. Prior to that decree, abortion was commonly used by Romanians to control birth. After illegalization of the practice, Romanians witnessed an era of increased crime rate, unemployment rate, social inequalities, and other social vices.
Evaluating alternative solutions
The controversy concerning the linkage between abortion and crime rates in America has sparked mixed feelings and explanations. The authors did not only link declining crime rates to sanctioning of abortion, but also, they considered other factors that could have contributed to the phenomenon. This is an indication that the authors evaluated other solutions that could explain the drop in crime rates in America in the 1990s. Besides legalization of abortion, the authors also assessed other possible causes such as improvement of economic conditions, increased utilization of prisons, and improvement in policing practices. The authors noted that improvement of economic conditions created employment opportunities for people, thus crime rates reduced. Again, increased utilization of prison facilities reduced cases of criminal activities because most felons would be kept in check, thus preventing them from violence. In addition, improved policing practices reduced crime rates because new strategies were developed to facilitate the processing of enforcing laws.
Drawing conclusions
The explanation presented in chapter 4 shows that the authors strongly supported the conclusion that the drop in crime rates in the 1990s was because of sanctioning of abortion. Although this conclusion remains insufficient to many, the authors expressed that there exists a strong correlation between the drop in crime rates and abortion. According to them, other factors considered revealed a causation effect as opposed to a correlation. Nevertheless, during that period, there may have been time delay hitches that were not appropriately accounted for, thus the variation between the time when abortion was legalized and the period within which its supposed effects were experienced.
Therefore, the link between abortion and crime dominated all other possible explanations, because data from all the states considered proved that states with many cases of abortion experienced the highest percentage declines in crime rates. The chapter summarizes the findings of the study and the data collected provide evidence that a significant drop in crime rate in the 1990s can be linked to the sanctioning of abortion. For this reason, the authors held that Roe v. Wade ruling was the major trigger of the decline in crime rates.