U.S. Crime Rates Falling or Rising?

INTUITIVE theories are often easier to believe in than to prove. For instance: conventional wisdom says that the crime rate should rise during a recession. When people are out of work and out of money, the thinking goes, they turn to crime. But the evidence backing this theory is at best equivocal.

Excerpt from The Economist

There seem to be some links between crime and economic conditions, but they are neither as direct nor clear as one might assume. Crime rose during the Roaring Twenties then fell in the Depression. 

America’s economy expanded and crime rates rose in the 1960s. Rates fell throughout the 1990s, when America’s economy was healthy, but they kept falling during the recession in the early 2000s. Read full story here.

However, other studies I have read indicate that people who watch a lot of television, especially crime drama, believe that crime rates are much higher than in reality.  It seems that exposing the mind to an over-emphasis of anything sways critical thinking toward that interpretation of life.