For anyone who wants to understand the reality of crime, I highly recommend Glenn's prior guest Rafael Mangual and his book Criminal Injustice. It's one of the best works I've read and Rafael deserves a prize along the lines of the MacArthur genius award.
Mangual casts doubt on the frequently espoused idea that crime is primarily the result of poverty. As he notes, poverty rates are actually slightly higher in NYC today than they were in the early 1990s when crime peaked in the city. Furthermore, I would point out that there seems to be very little correlation between per capita GDP and homicide rates in East Asia, let alone any stronger evidence of causation. In my opinion, there's too much variation in crime rates among different groups even after accounting for SES for poverty to clearly be the primary factor driving crime.
The simple fact of the matter is that the police ultimately aren't the problem, even if policing is imperfect and in need of some reform. Communities with low rates of crime have a much different relationship with the police than communities with high rates of crime. Policing is ultimately a symptom and not the underlying cause.
I couldn’t agree more. Read Raph’s book and thorough, thoughtful and rigorous are words that I think fall short. I think The Manhattan Institute is lucky to have him, and we are, or at least could be, beneficiaries of his research. By “we” I mean Americans.
For anyone who wants to understand the reality of crime, I highly recommend Glenn's prior guest Rafael Mangual and his book Criminal Injustice. It's one of the best works I've read and Rafael deserves a prize along the lines of the MacArthur genius award.
Mangual casts doubt on the frequently espoused idea that crime is primarily the result of poverty. As he notes, poverty rates are actually slightly higher in NYC today than they were in the early 1990s when crime peaked in the city. Furthermore, I would point out that there seems to be very little correlation between per capita GDP and homicide rates in East Asia, let alone any stronger evidence of causation. In my opinion, there's too much variation in crime rates among different groups even after accounting for SES for poverty to clearly be the primary factor driving crime.
The simple fact of the matter is that the police ultimately aren't the problem, even if policing is imperfect and in need of some reform. Communities with low rates of crime have a much different relationship with the police than communities with high rates of crime. Policing is ultimately a symptom and not the underlying cause.
I couldn’t agree more. Read Raph’s book and thorough, thoughtful and rigorous are words that I think fall short. I think The Manhattan Institute is lucky to have him, and we are, or at least could be, beneficiaries of his research. By “we” I mean Americans.