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A comment on This Guy Has My MacBook. Parent comment

Re:This Guy Has My MacBook by Travis on Tuesday May 31, 2011 @07:50PM (#2605203)
Broken windows theory has its share of criticism. In Tipping Point (or maybe it was one of his others, or freakonomics), they are able to connect the drop in crime rates with both the legalization of abortion and/or the banishment of leaded gasoline. Point being, it's nearly impossible to separate causality in sociological phenomenon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory#Criticism...

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Re:This Guy Has My MacBook by TrevorBurnham on Tuesday May 31, 2011 @07:58PM (#2605228)
It was Freakonomics that theorized that abortion was the cause of the drop in crime (which occurred nationwide as it was happening in NYC, though not to the same degree). Gladwell has debated with the authors of Freakonomics (primarily the economist Steven Levitt) about this.

See http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2006/03/thoughts_on_..., http://www.freakonomics.com/2006/03/09/malcolm-gladwell-on-t..., http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2006/03/levitt_and_d...

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Re:This Guy Has My MacBook by stretchwithme on Tuesday May 31, 2011 @08:18PM (#2605289)
The changes made in New York bore fruit within a few years.

The trends you're referring to take decades. And don't seem to have worked in Oakland.

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Re:This Guy Has My MacBook by CamperBob on Tuesday May 31, 2011 @08:58PM (#2605403)
Oakland has tried zero-tolerance policing?
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Re:This Guy Has My MacBook by ars on Tuesday May 31, 2011 @09:24PM (#2605471)
He means abortion and leaded gas.
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Re:This Guy Has My MacBook by Duff on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @10:48AM (#2607483)
Oakland sounds like a more permissive place that attracts scum. In NYC, they kick you out of the projects when you misbehave and scumbags end up migrating to smaller cities.
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