{"id":859,"date":"2005-04-17T23:32:59","date_gmt":"2005-04-18T03:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/wordpress\/?p=859"},"modified":"2005-04-17T23:32:59","modified_gmt":"2005-04-18T03:32:59","slug":"cruel-kindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=859","title":{"rendered":"Cruel Kindness?"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Tierney covers<\/a> a recent debate<\/a> in Manhattan between Malcolm Gladwell, authour of “The Tipping Point,” and economist Steven D. Levitt, co-authour of “Freakonomics” with journalist Stephen J. Dubner.<\/p>\n

Gladwell’s book seeks to define “a new way of understanding<\/a>” why dramatic and unexpected social changes occur. On the subject of why NYC’s crime rate dropped dramatically in the mid-90s Gladwell had agreed with Tierney (who in 1995 called it The Squeegee Watershed<\/em><\/a>), whereby tougher anti-crime measures were the tipping point. By debate’s end they’d both been swayed by the numbers Levitt presented in defence of his research that found NYC’s legalisation of abortion in 1970 the “single most important cause,” more than hiring cops, a declining crack epidemic, or harsher prison sentencing.<\/p>\n

Felix Salmon, in this mixed review<\/a> of “Freakonomics,” excerpts from the introduction to its abortion chapter:<\/p>\n

Conservatives were enraged that abortion could be construed as a crime-fighting tool. Liberals were aghast that poor and black women were singled out. Economists grumbled that Levitt’s methodology was not sound. As the media gorged on the abortion-crime story, Levitt came under direct assault. He was called an ideologue (by conservatives and liberals alike), a eugenicist, a racist, and downright evil. In reality, he seems to be very much none of those.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Salmon’s comments, Steve Sailer linked to an e-mail debate<\/a> he had with Levitt on Slate<\/em> in 1999 when these accusations were flying in response to Levitt’s and John Donohue’s paper, “The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime<\/a>.” Sailer also updated<\/a> his own site restating his analysis of homicide rates whilst continuing to ignore points<\/a> Levitt considered to be flaws in his argument. Sailer will be posting additional data and graphs here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One graph shows that illegitimate births rose steadily untill the mid-90s, and Sailer blames legalising abortion, as it gave men an excuse to escape the “civilising” clutches of marriage and making “honest” women of their sex partners. He ignores data from the National Center for Health Statistics<\/a> showing teen pregnancies peaked in 1990 and these facts<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The pregnancy rate for teenagers fell 27 percent overall during 1990-2000, to 84.5 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-19 years. This rate was the lowest ever reported since 1976. The overall decline is reflected in significant reductions in birth and abortion rates.<\/p>\n

Pregnancy rates fell more for 15-17-year-old teenagers (33 percent) than for 18-19 year olds (20 percent).<\/p>\n

Rates declined about one-third each for white and black non-Hispanic teenagers and by 15 percent for Hispanic teenagers.<\/p>\n

During the 1990-2000 decade, pregnancy rates declined about 8 percent for married women and 12 percent for unmarried women. The birth rate for married women declined about 6 percent, while the abortion rate fell one-fourth. The birth rate for unmarried women changed little, but the abortion rate also declined about one-fourth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Among the factors believed to be driving this downturn in teen pregnancies are increases in condom use, the adoption of the effective injectable and implant contraceptives, and the leveling off of teen sexual activity.”<\/p>\n

Or that “American women are waiting to begin families”<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Several factors may account for the delay in childbearing, most importantly educational opportunities and career choices for women. From 1970 to 2000 the number of women completing college has nearly doubled and the number in the labor force has gone up by almost 40 percent. Changes in contraception use, economic cycles, social support, and marriage patterns should also be considered.” <\/p>\n

Sailer concludes:<\/p>\n

“Well, a lot of people find the abortion-cuts-crime theory very comforting, even if they won’t say it in public. It now appears well on its way to becoming the new conventional wisdom. But the issue is hardly whether it’s comforting or not, but whether it’s true.”<\/p>\n

“Cruelle Tendresse<\/a>“? Then why the banging of pots and pans when Levitt introduced his paper in ’99? It’s high comedy that, “Conservatives were enraged that abortion could be construed as a crime-fighting tool,” but have no problem with a system rigged to cull a certain class of parents from the gene pool. <\/p>\n

More than four-fifths of drug law violation arrests are for possession<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\n\"Click<\/a><\/div>\n

Estimated totals of top 7 arrest offenses, United States, 2003<\/p>\n

Total arrests* 13,639,500
\nDrug abuse violations 1,678,200
\nDriving under the influence 1,448,100
\nSimple assaults 1,246,700
\nLarceny\/theft 1,145,100
\nDisorderly conduct 639,400
\nLiquor laws 612,100
\nDrunkenness 548,600 <\/p>\n

*Arrest totals are based on all reporting agencies and estimates for unreported areas.<\/p>\n

Source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States<\/em><\/a>, annually.<\/p>\n

Education Cuts May Strip Troubled-Youth Programs<\/strong>
\nby Audie Cornish<\/a><\/p>\n

Weekend Edition – Sunday, April 10, 2005 ? The nation’s schools have depended on federal money to establish programs on drug abuse and anger management for troubled students. But the funding they count on may be in trouble as the Bush administration proposes to make huge funding cuts in the program.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Tierney covers a recent debate in Manhattan between Malcolm Gladwell, authour of “The Tipping Point,” and economist Steven D. Levitt, co-authour of “Freakonomics” with journalist Stephen J. Dubner. Gladwell’s book seeks to define “a new way of understanding” why … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-dR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}