The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime / John Donohue, Steven Levitt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Donohue, John.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Levitt, Steven.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w8004.

NBER working paper series no. w8004

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Abortion--Law and legislation--United States.

Abortion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2000.

Cambridge, Massachussetts : National Bureau of Economic Research, [2000]

Summary:

We offer evidence that legalized abortion has contributed significantly to recent crime reductions. Crime began to fall roughly 18 years after abortion legalization. The 5 states that allowed abortion in 1970 experienced declines earlier than the rest of the nation, which legalized in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. States with high abortion rates in the 1970s and 1980s experienced greater crime reductions in the 1990s. In high abortion states, only arrests of those born after abortion legalization fall relative to low abortion states. Legalized abortion appears to account for as much as 50 percent of the recent drop in crime.

Notes:

Print version record

November 2000.