Where Have All the Criminals Gone?

Chapter four of Freakonomics explores different factors that reduce crime in a region. The authors give numerous possible factors, but explain the faults in each one. The main point of the chapter is the relationship between birth rates and crime. Moreover, they explore the relationship between abortion laws and how allowing abortion decreases crime rates. This relationship was very thoughtful and interesting because abortion has no direct impact on criminal activity. All the other factors, like the number of police in a city or the economic state of region, have more obvious relationships with criminal activity.

The point behind abortion is valuable because it helps prove that crime has a lot to do with children being born into situations that are not advantageous to them. The statistics show that when a mother has the right to choose whether to give birth or not, she makes the right decision. When a mother is forced to give birth despite maybe not having enough money or time to raise a child, that child has an immediate disadvantage in life that may cause criminal activity later on.

If allowing abortions is actually a strong factor that can reduce crime, then I would like to ask the authors what the best solution is to deterring criminal activity in a city. I am curious to know what their opinions are on the other factors discussed in the chapter. If they were in charge of a region would it be best to focus on allowing and encouraging abortions or is it still necessary to increase the police force and give more money to law enforcement and prisons. As we have seen in various studies this year there is never a situation where only one explanatory variable affects the dependent variable. These authors and criminology experts should be looking into what combinations of factors, including population control, have the greatest impact on crime. While they do not outright say that the other factors are worthless, they do believe abortion and population to be the most important ones.

I would not be willing to give up on other methods discussed in this chapter, such as gun control. The authors show evidence that guns do always lead to violence but I am a believer that if they were strongly limited or removed all together there would a large decrease in criminal activity and the murder rate. The United States has a gun culture like no other country. The authors cite Switzerland as a country where guns have not caused criminal activity to increase, but I disagree with this comparison because the United States and Switzerland are much different places.