Culture, Crime, and Statistics

Barry Latzer, Emeritus Professor of Criminology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, has this letter on culture and crime statistics in the Wall Street Journal.

If economic gains are associated with rising crime and economic downturns with declining crime, the prevailing theories of crime causation need rethinking. Indeed it seems the relationship between crime and economic conditions is unpredictable, and cultural values play a central role in the extent of violent behavior by various social groups.

Professor Latzer is too modest. The prevailing theories have already been rethought. By him.

The letter is in response to this column in the WSJ by Jason Riley. Riley’s point is that racial preferences have been bad for economic progress by black Americans, who were advancing at a better pace before they came in.

Latzer’s history of violent crime demonstrates that differences in crime in various regions and ethnic groups are more a matter of culture than of economics. A brief description of that is in the letter. For a longer version, see The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America.