Welfare.
Falling Crime: Where have all the burglars gone?
61–70 of 190 posts
Re: Falling Crime: Where have all the burglars gone?
#62Since this piece mentions burglary in specific, I found it thriving in Southern California (OC), but in a very specific fashion. Very careful criminals are using the following M.O.:
- Parking garages with no cameras
- Security is part time, and they wait until they're gone
- They hit only cars that are unlocked, so no breaking, just entering
- Occasionally, if they see a big score like a laptop, they will break a window, but probably as their last act before getaway.
- They hit a building only once every few months, when people have let down their guard again.
I'd never heard of this until I was a victim, and the police told me the were aware of it but couldn't catch them. Then I asked around and they've hit buildings in several cities. Simply remembering to lock your door and leave nothing obvious on your seats will protect you.
I bring this up because although the crimes are reported to the police, I wonder how much they are reflected in statistics like these.
Re: Falling Crime: Where have all the burglars gone?
#63They've all moved to Spokane, Wa and become real estate agents or car thieves
Re: Falling Crime: Where have all the burglars gone?
#64I don't think enough emphasis is put in these studies on the rise of cheap entertainment for bored male youth. Teenage boys that normally would have been running around in the streets committing entry level crimes are now glued to their Xbox. The declines in crime also happen to correlate with the ubiquitousness and availability of video games. As they get cheaper and more violent, crime goes down. Sure policing has…
Teenage boys that normally would have been running around in the streets committing entry level crimes are now glued to their Xbox. The declines in crime also happen to correlate with the ubiquitousness and availability of video games. As they get cheaper and more violent, crime goes down. I really like your argument but I remember how ubiquitous the SNES, Sega Genesis and PS1 were in the 90s. I do wonder what role t…
The big difference between games then and games today is the rise of multiplayer games. Gaming today is a much more social activity. I suspect that this is the primary reason why it's more mainstream and more addicting.
Re: Falling Crime: Where have all the burglars gone?
#65I don't think enough emphasis is put in these studies on the rise of cheap entertainment for bored male youth. Teenage boys that normally would have been running around in the streets committing entry level crimes are now glued to their Xbox. The declines in crime also happen to correlate with the ubiquitousness and availability of video games. As they get cheaper and more violent, crime goes down. Sure policing has…
So this would mean that a lot of crime is the result of boredom right? That kind of makes a lot of sense.
I don't think most people want to commit crimes and hurt others. They do it out of necessity. That necessity might be hunger, money or boredom coupled with a bad environment.
So next up is definitely hunger. I'd say in the end people who wish to steal for money when they're well fed, entertained and not homeless are just bad batch of humans we need to deal with.
Re: Falling Crime: Where have all the burglars gone?
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, but they carry $500 smartphones with them now instead.
Right, but how much would you get for that smartphone if you brought it to a pawn shop? Assuming you properly reset its data and convince the pawn shop owner it isn't stolen I bet you could get $30 at most. (And if the phone is locked down and the thief can't jailbreak it it essentially has a value $0)
On the other hand, you could probably make a lot selling on Craigslist.
I've been selling my family's old phones and computers for years, and the market is robust. Not $500 robust, but two-year-old iPhones go for about $200 (which, probably not coincidentally, is the upgrade price for a new phone).
Re: Falling Crime: Where have all the burglars gone?
#67I don't think enough emphasis is put in these studies on the rise of cheap entertainment for bored male youth. Teenage boys that normally would have been running around in the streets committing entry level crimes are now glued to their Xbox. The declines in crime also happen to correlate with the ubiquitousness and availability of video games. As they get cheaper and more violent, crime goes down. Sure policing has…
Teenage boys that normally would have been running around in the streets committing entry level crimes are now glued to their Xbox. The declines in crime also happen to correlate with the ubiquitousness and availability of video games. As they get cheaper and more violent, crime goes down. I really like your argument but I remember how ubiquitous the SNES, Sega Genesis and PS1 were in the 90s. I do wonder what role t…
> I remember how ubiquitous the SNES, Sega Genesis and PS1 were in the 90s
They weren't "ubiquitous" for poor kids. For those kids, there was no way they would get their parents to buy us anything for (the 1991 equivalent of) $350 and $85/game.
Nobody assumed that upper middle class kids were normally carrying out burglaries...
Re: Falling Crime: Where have all the burglars gone?
#68This article mentions, but undersells, the lead factor. Lead exposure causes cognitive problems in children, especially related to impulse control. The drop in crime correlates very well with lead cleanup. Kevin Drum (a left-leaning US journalist) has been making this argument: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/01/lead-and-crime...
I don't know if we have to go reaching for lead as the reason. If the effects of chemical substances on the brain are indeed a factor... and yes, they probably are. Then there is probably a far more simple explanation. Drugs. Instead of police being faced with impoverished young men of the 70s, 80s and 90s who are hyped up on cocaine, crack or pcp and trolling for their next hit. They are dealing with the impoverishe…
Did you get your drug folklore/knowledge from "Reefer Madness"? Can you cite any credible evidence that pot use is even remotely associated with violent behavior?
Re: Falling Crime: Where have all the burglars gone?
#69There's no mention of the rise of the welfare state. I'd be surprised if the presence of an economic safety net didn't have an impact on people's willingness to commit crime. In the end, I'm sure the answer is a combination of all these factors. As individuals and as a species, we get better at living as time goes on.
If it's true that welfare makes it less likely for someone to commit a crime then wouldn't that also mean it makes them less likely to get a job?
Absolutely. In fact, many welfare schemes are designed to encourage young people to stay in education rather than dropping out early to work.
In any case: since poor, unemployed young men commit crime, and we're never going to see 100% employment, lifting them out of poverty will reduce the impact of crime on everyone else. Intolerable for Ayn Rand; pragmatic for the rest of us.
Re: Falling Crime: Where have all the burglars gone?
#70I don't think enough emphasis is put in these studies on the rise of cheap entertainment for bored male youth. Teenage boys that normally would have been running around in the streets committing entry level crimes are now glued to their Xbox. The declines in crime also happen to correlate with the ubiquitousness and availability of video games. As they get cheaper and more violent, crime goes down. Sure policing has…
This is the reason that Moral Majority types really should stop complaining that poor folks always seem to have TVs and video game systems. $500 per family to keep kids from getting too bored+jittery is a good deal.