"The Rise and Fall of Crime in the Late 20th Century (and into the 21st) Is One of the Great Mysteries of Social Science"

"Several people whom I asked to review Edlund and Machado's paper thought the size of the effect was probably too large. 'It is not inconceivable that their theory was a contributing factor, but 20–30 percent seems like a lot,' said Inimai Chettiar, the director of the Brennan Center's Justice Program, which did a large-scale review of the crime decline several years ago. For the period from 1990 to 1999, the Brennan Center found that all the following factors combined explained only about a quarter of the drop: increased incarceration, increased police numbers, aging population, growth in income, decreased alcohol consumption, and unemployment. They also concluded that the decrease in environmental lead exposure and crack use and the increase in abortions 'possibly' had some effect."

Alexis C. Madrigal at The Atlantic asks, "Did technology disrupt the drug game, too?"