Legal Abortion vs Crime Rate
I know it doesn't look pretty, but would legalizing abortion help the crime rate drop?
The following statistic is from http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/gen008.htm
"1.7 million Americans are incarcerated in prisons or jails, more per capita than any other nation."
In the book, "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, has an interesting way of making it all sound like it would. In a round-a-bout way, they explain how, if abortion was legal, there may be less children born into unhappy homes, thus less criminals. I know it may be a little far fetched, but it certainly makes you think about it. When all you hear, in the media of course, is that criminals usually come from a broken home or the like, what else would you think? That's being pounded into everyones heads all the time. But what about Enron? They were criminals, did they all come from a broken home and did that impact their actions? Doubt it. It must just be violent criminals then, right?
More abortions, less crime. It sounds like it works, but we will never know it's direct impact.
Enjoy!
*this is not related to my opinion on abortion rights or the rights of a mother to be, just my opinion on that particular chapter in the book, "Freakonomics"
1 comments:
Well, sir or ma'am, whichever the case may be, I have to say that legalizing abortion or not to reduce crime is moot. Because abortion itself is a crime (in my opinion, of course; I will not hold judgment against those who disagree, but hear me out please). Who is to say that by aborting a fetus you're not murdering a human (a crime)? Some would say that a fetus has no real grasp of what's going on (consciousness), but how does someone know this? No one can know, because no one can remember back this far into their lives. This, in my opinion, would constitute reasonable doubt, which could in turn define abortion as murder (again, in my opinion). What if a fetus can feel pain? What if he/she knows it is being harmed? Murdered? Abortion is just unacceptable. A better way to reduce crime rate is through education. And example. But that could be another posting altogether.
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