2. Police using computers
More police officers on the beat
Additional manpower helps police departments respond to and prevent violence. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed a major crime bill that set aside enough federal funding for law enforcement agencies nationally to add 100,000 officers, though the ranks of the country's police forces had already been expanding as local governments dedicated more resources to their departments to control increasing rates of crime.
It wasn't just that police departments hired more people. They also started using computers to collect data on crime and to direct their officers' efforts more efficiently. When they have accurate, current information on where crime is happening, they can identify the neighborhoods where they are needed most.
As Zimring notes, police in New York were among the first to realize the potential for computers to aid in fighting crime. Departments nationwide are now using versions of New York's CompStat system, short for Comparative Statistics. A recent study by the Brennan Center for Justice suggests that similar systems across the country reduced homicide by about 11 percent.
3. Less booze
A gradual decline in the amount of alcohol that Americans drink is another explanation for the decline in violence. About four in 10 prisoners convicted of murder were using alcohol at the time of the offense, according to a federal report. Americans drank 21 percent less alcohol in 2000 than in 1980, though consumption has increased since then, data from the National Institutes of Health shows. The authors of the report from the Brennan Center believe that this decline can account for 5 percent to 10 percent of the overall decline in crime.
Total U.S. alcohol consumption per person declined sharply beginning three decades ago, but has recently increased. (National Institutes of Health)
4. Less lead
Besides alcohol, lead is another substance that has been shown to make humans more aggressive. Lead is toxic, and it can affect the behavior of children who are exposed to the metal while their brains are still developing. After the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970, refiners were required to sell unleaded gasoline. Jessica Reyes, an economist at Amherst College, has argued that the children born after that law took effect breathed in less lead from car exhaust and that their brains were healthier as a result. She has estimated that the removal of lead reduced violent crime by no less than 56 percent. Other researchers are skeptical that lead could have caused such a large decline in U.S. violence, but many agree that the Clean Air Act had some effect on crime.
Are you so OUT OF THE LOOP you've forgotten how this FORUM thing works? We all posted on San Bernardino in REAL TIME and corrected our INFO as it was REPORTED. You HAVE NOT called out any CONS who also jumped in with THEIR OPINIONS.
