AS I've mentioned before, though, they do explain part of this as the baby boom effect. You saw a huge rise in the population that typically committed crimes (males 16-29) and up went the crime stats. It wasn't all necessarily because people became more prone to criminality. (reminds me of the Kitty Genovese case and how that was used to say all kinds of things about U.S. culture which subsequently turned out to be quite a bit less the case than some folks seemed to want!)
Recent ish of Scientific American covered the whole crime reduction thing. If I get a chance, I'll try to scan it and load it on my site for perusal. It was a damn good article. Researchers remain puzzled over how to account for the drop in crime rates across the country. They've got five suspects but none of them can fully explain it all. Can't remember the gist of the article in any more depth than that.
Also quickie: been meaning to say to Dwayne that I was thinking about my last comment to you. I hope I didn't actually offend you at all. I realized that this might be interpreted as inappropriately sexualizing you. Not meant that way at all. It's a habit from working at a catering company where it was a huge joke to tell someone how much you appreciated something they'd done. Since then, I'll occasionally say it to a good guy friend when they've done something outstandingly helpful or cracked a joke that made me laugh til I cried. I know you didn't appear offended, but then it might actually be diff. to register offense given dynamics. So....
Kelley
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