Last year, the FBI announced that the violent crime rate in this nation was as low as it’s been in four decades. This happy news was the culmination of a steady trend that challenged cherished shibboleths of the right and the left.

First, it occurs as the largest-ever generation of kids born out of wedlock hits the streets, an indicator conservatives long maintained was the key determinant in social pathology. The crime drop also comes in the midst of a terrible economy, upending the liberal view prevalent since the 1960s, when economist Gary Becker argued that a life of crime was often a rational decision if other choices were not available.

To be sure, there were always skeptics, such as prominent criminologist James Q. Wilson, but even adherents of Wilson’s “broken window” theory are hard-pressed to explain the full extent of what has transpired. Two factors undoubtedly play a role. The first is the nation’s high incarceration rate, a result of lengthy prison terms mandated by legislatures and Congress and meted out by the courts. Many career criminals have been removed from circulation.

Equally important are improvements in policing techniques. Politicians invoke the phrase “community policing” to describe these measures, but suggesting that friendly cops on the beat has been the solution is a misnomer. Technology-assisted “pro-active policing,” which is nearly the opposite philosophy, has proven the most successful. Using this approach, New York City officers, for instance, put their emphasis on crime-ridden neighborhoods and found that taking steps such as frisking even minor suspects for illegal firearms paid dividends.

But if the full explanation is a mystery, the upshot is clear: Hundreds of thousands fewer victims of violence and theft. Peter Wehner, a former official in George W. Bush’s White House, put it best: “This is a remarkable, unexpected and encouraging development.”

-- Carl M. Cannon

Introduction

Federal Debt, Deficit, Budget

Employment

Environment

Military, Alliances and U.S. Image Abroad