A new theory on the causes of crime by John Donohue, a professor of law at Stanford University and Steven Levitt, a University of Chicago economist.

Basically they looked at data about when and where women had the most abortions and found that 15-18 years later the crime rate in those areas fell proportionately.

They cite the fall in crime in the US through the 1990s as relating to relaxations in abortion legislation in the 1970s and 80s.

In Donohue's words--"poor, unmarried, young, low-education women tend to have more abortions. And their kids tend to have higher rates of crime."

Or perhaps simply giving people the freedom to choose when to have children allows them to take better care of their kids leading to fewer criminals.

The study has been attacked as racist and genocidal, by both the left and right but with any luck some of its finding will get through to legislators to give them more modern ways of thinking about the causes of crime.

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