Monday Blog

 

After reading the article, “Are the Xbox and unleaded gas helping keep you safe from violent crime?” I never really thought that playing video games, lead, and housing would lower the crime rate. In the Xbox explanation experts claim that criminals are too busy playing their violent video games that they don’t think about going out and doing violent crimes. Not just Xboxes have led to the decrease of crimes; gadgets and technology also have had an impact on the crime rate. Research claims that Street corners and drug dens are no longer as dangerous as they once were, because cellphones and the Internet have largely taken their place as marketplaces for illicit goods.

The housing effect shows that when you replace better housing in large cities the crime rate decreases.  After the housing project residents moved to other neighborhoods they brought crime with them, but the remaining effect for the city overall was still a lower crime rate.

One thing I found very interesting was the research on lead. Exposure to lead among children has been shown that their IQs are low. The impact that the lead has on the brain also has been connected to the sorts of aggressive behaviors that support violent crime. In the late 1970s, lead was removed from gasoline and paint, resulting in the lead levels in people. Ever since they took lead out of gas and paint there has been and decrease in violent behavior. Health Professor Jessica Wolpaw Reyes thinks that this will continue and violence will keep decreasing.

People think that crime goes down when the economy goes up, that is not the case. Police and social scientists were watching for an increase in violent crime during the Great Recession that began in 2008, but it never occurred. That’s somewhat because more people were staying home because they lacked work.