Freakonomics Chapter 4 Summary

In Chapter 4 of Freakonomics, the main subject is the question on why criminal activity has declined so rapidly at such a sharp rate in time. This chapter goes in depth and explains the relevance between abortions and the impact it had on society. While crime is still going on today the overall statistics of criminal actions has decreased at such a high numbers many questions were asked on how and why this has happened. This chapter goes into detail on the 1990’s in which one big law was passed that ultimately resulted in a lower population of criminals in the United States. In the 1990’s the Abortion Law was passed, enabling people around the country to legally get an abortion. While a large percentage of the population demanded the veto of this law, it would later end up in the positive aspect of society. Still with much
With that being the case, a child with little to no parenting or guidance from his parents is more likely to hangout with the wrong type of people. The chapter states that the next generation of criminals were never born, there resulting in the sharp decline of criminals in the past twenty years. Under fourteen percent of current prisoners reported growing up with neither parent around to support them, and with that only three percent a study showed only having one parent throughout their youth. Just under forty percent of prisoners had shown that their parents engaged in abusive relationship with alcohol or drugs. In the early years of the first legalization of abortion to back the hypothesis, the first five states to adapt this law had crime rates drop in the first three years against the other 45 states, while the other 45 actually experienced a raise in crime rate, therefore proving that this solution would actually benefit society. In the end the chapter in Freakonomics proves that abortion was the clear benefactor in the cause of crime rates dropping