Sorry, Folks. "Poverty" Does NOT "Cause Crime"

When you stop to think about it (the step the Left never takes), the 'poverty causes crime' meme didn't make any sense. Hundreds of millions of people live in poverty around the world--and their 'criminal' activity is either less than or equal to what we see in the US.

But regardless, the theory took another body-blow from Heather MacDonald. Too bad Jim-the-Doylet and his parties-to-crime in the Legislature don't get all too interested in facts before they started releasing criminals ("non-violent" my ass) back out here. You'll see why in the excerpts.

The recession of 2008-09 has undercut one of the most destructive social theories that came out of the 1960s: the idea that the root cause of crime lies in income inequality and social injustice. As the economy started shedding jobs in 2008, criminologists and pundits predicted that crime would shoot up, since poverty, as the "root causes" theory holds, begets criminals. Instead, the opposite happened. Over seven million lost jobs later, crime has plummeted to its lowest level since the early 1960s.

Hundreds of disappointed folks in tweed jackets, and rectories, nationwide.....

...[I]n the early 1960s[,] Sociologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin argued that juvenile delinquency was essentially a form of social criticism. Poor minority youth come to understand that the American promise of upward mobility is a sham, after a bigoted society denies them the opportunity to advance. These disillusioned teens then turn to crime out of thwarted expectations.

Yes, THAT Cloward. The subversive one. See Cloward-Pivin: the strategy whereby capitalism is overthrown by overwhelming the bureaucracy with entitlement demands.

...The 1960s themselves offered a challenge to the poverty-causes-crime thesis. Homicides rose 43%, despite an expanding economy and a surge in government jobs for inner-city residents. The Great Depression also contradicted the idea that need breeds predation, since crime rates dropped during that prolonged crisis

Ah, but those are mere facts.

...as the current recession deepened, liberal media outlets called for more government social programs to fight the coming crime wave. In late 2008, the New York Times urged President Barack Obama to crank up federal spending on after-school programs, social workers, and summer jobs. "The economic crisis," the paper's editorialists wrote, "has clearly created the conditions for more crime and more gangs—among hopeless, jobless young men in the inner cities."

Sound familiar? It should. It's Mayor Tommy's thaaannng, too.

...by the end of 2009, the purported association between economic hardship and crime was in shambles. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, homicide dropped 10% nationwide in the first six months of 2009; violent crime dropped 4.4% and property crime dropped 6.1%. Car thefts are down nearly 19%. The crime plunge is sharpest in many areas that have been hit the hardest by the housing collapse. Unemployment in California is 12.3%, but homicides in Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Times reported recently, dropped 25% over the course of 2009. Car thefts there are down nearly 20%.

Cops using tools!! Whadda Concept!!

As New York Police Commissioner in the mid-1990s, Mr. Bratton pioneered the intensive use of crime data to determine policing strategies and to hold precinct commanders accountable—a process known as Compstat. Commissioner Kelly has continued Mr. Bratton's revolutionary policies, leading to New York's stunning 16-year 77% crime drop. The two police leaders were true to their word. In 2009, the city of L.A. saw a 17% drop in homicides, an 8% drop in property crimes, and a 10% drop in violent crimes. In New York, homicides fell 19%, to their lowest level since reliable records were first kept in 1963.

Anyone who visited NYC during Dinkins and then visited NYC in the last 5 years can tell you the difference. It's night-and-day. Rudy Giuliani, folks...

The recession could still affect crime rates if cities cut their police forces and states start releasing prisoners early. Both forms of cost-saving would be self-defeating.

Frankly, the Doylet agenda is defeating Wisconsin's law-abiding taxpayers.

November cannot come too soon.