The theory that a bad economy spurs crime only works if the criminal is Jean ValJean (from Les Miserables; he stole a loaf of bread to feed his family). If the criminal is selling drugs on the street corner, the probability is that he’s likely to do that whether the economy is good or bad. My guess is that the decline in crime (in LA anyway) is mostly due to the police department slowly increasing in effectiveness, and improving in the aftermath of the Rampart scandal. The economic downturn has nothing, or nothing much, to do with the crime rate. Lots of liberals are obsessed with “root causes” of crime, poverty, etc., mostly using this as a Trojan Horse to infiltrate them further into the control of society. This again proves they’re wrong.
