6.6.2: The Decline of Violent Crime
As you have seen, judges have put more and more people in prison, and legislators have passed the three-strikes laws.
As these changes took place, the crime rate dropped sharply.
Sociologists conclude that getting tough on criminals reduced crime, but they stress that this is only one of the reasons that violent crime dropped (Sharkey 2018).
Other reasons include higher employment, a lower birth rate, an aging population, and even abortion. There are even those who say that the best explanation is the elimination of lead in gasoline (Drum 2013).
When the FBI reported an increase in violent crime in 2015 and 2016, politicians and reporters stoked fears of a long rise in violent crime.
However, this did not happen, and violent crime again fell in 2017 and 2018 (FBI 2018).
While violent crime fell recently, the U.S. still deals with violence tied to guns.
The following video addresses the gun problem in the U.S. Watch Why Is It So Hard To Stop Gun Violence in the United States?
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