Crime Rate Rises? Mother Jones says "Blame Leaded Gasoline"

[Jeebus]

New research finds Pb is the hidden villain behind violent crime, lower IQs, and even the ADHD epidemic. And fixing the problem is a lot cheaper than doing nothing.

So we're back to square one. More prisons might help control crime, more cops might help, and better policing might help. But the evidence is thin for any of these as the main cause. What are we missing?

Experts often suggest that crime resembles an epidemic. But what kind? Karl Smith, a professor of public economics and government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has a good rule of thumb for categorizing epidemics: If it spreads along lines of communication, he says, the cause is information. Think Bieber Fever. If it travels along major transportation routes, the cause is microbial. Think influenza. If it spreads out like a fan, the cause is an insect. Think malaria. But if it's everywhere, all at once—as both the rise of crime in the '60s and '70s and the fall of crime in the '90s seemed to be—the cause is a molecule.

A molecule? That sounds crazy. What molecule could be responsible for a steep and sudden decline in violent crime?

Well, here's one possibility: Pb(CH2CH3)4.

[flyboy56]

"But if it's everywhere, all at once—as both the rise of crime in the '60s and '70s and the fall of crime in the '90s seemed to be—the cause is a molecule."

"What molecule could be responsible for a steep and sudden decline in violent crime?"

Or lack of...

[bmorepunk]

I'm going to need a good reason not to stick the "lead caused crime" crew in with the "vaccinations cause autism" people.

[Brohan]

And a good reason not to put them with the ATM's and airline kiosks kill jobs morons.

[Gopher]

Mother Jones must be flush with cash if they're paying people to write this type of stuff. Either that or they're just plain idiots.