I was reading the article from the Pew research on recent poll numbers, and was wondering if anyone knew if national crime stats have actually gone down? (Reflecting the impression that the poll indicates.) My guess is they haven’t. I’m lost in other projects at the moment, but would be curious if anyone has good sources or knowledge on this?
I mean, crime was majorly up in the 1970s when the lead saturation in the population was at its highest, but since we got rid of leaded gasoline, crime has been on a consistent downturn ever since.
People are still treating crime as if it were the 70s and not 50 years later when the fundamental issue that caused the crime spike to begin with has been dealt with.
Once the last people that were heavily saturated with lead die out in the next 20 years or so, we should start to be able to deal with this rationally, I hope.
I don’t think many people in the 70-80 age range are out there committing crimes.
Also I had lead water pipes for years. Other than some stupid stuff I did as a kid like run from the cops to avoid an underage, I wasn’t exactly committing any serious crimes. Crime is more often than not a result of the circumstances someone grows up in, like poverty, friends and neighbors, no opportunities, etc.
You might be surprised how many old people commit crimes. They aren’t tagging houses or robbing banks and museums (usually) but they can do a lot of other things. Petty theft, drunk driving, sexual offenses, etc.
And the effect of lead is subtle, like toxoplasmosis. It’s not a ‘touched lead, now I’m guaranteed to become a serial killer’ effect. It’s more like the lead dulls your ability to think ‘I probably shouldn’t do X,’ so you have a higher probability of doing things that get you into trouble.
Nah, it’s probably the Tylenol