Quote:
Originally Posted by Pavlov's Dog
Some discussion points:
- Portland versus peer cities in the US
- Crime development in Portland suburbs, is crime being reduced or displaced?
- Crime in Portland compared to peer cities outside the US
- Policing in Portland
- gentrification and crime
- what can be done to improve the situation even more?
- how has decriminalization and then legalization of marijuana contributed to the decrease?
- Incarceration in Portland, Oregon and SW Washington
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crime rates generally have been dropping nationally over the last 20 years or so, and there are multiple theories about the *why* postulated. you can add the following to your list perhaps:
- leaded fuel use/early brain development and crime
- abortion/birth control influences on crime rates
I'm curious what others have to share about this, in a more Portland specific way. I haven't got time to research it, but I'm pretty confident that Portland is not an outlier in this regard.
this is also fascinating in relation to national politics generally, and the presidential race specifically. The "Make America Safe Again" tact doesn't necessarily coincide with the statistical data, but seems to have resonance with many at a gut level. I think the Prof quoted above is spot on about how we are fed a steady diet of crime through the media, and that it feels really, really dangerous now. we're starting to see some blowback to the fear mongering from a few on the right which hopefully will add some much needed intellectual honesty on the subject, but I'm fairly certain that a decent chunk of America prefers to be scared. weird.