Legalized abortion and crime effect
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The effect of legalized abortion on crime (also the Donohue–Levitt hypothesis) is a hypothesized controversial reduction in crime in the decades following the legalization of abortion, as a result of fewer children at the highest risk of committing crime being born due to the availability of the procedure. The earliest research suggesting such an effect was a 1966 study in Sweden. In 2001, Steven Levitt of the University of Chicago and John Donohue of Yale University argued, citing their research and earlier studies, that children who are unwanted or whose parents cannot support them are likelier to become criminals, and that there is an inverse correlation between the availability of abortion and subsequent crime. This idea was further popularized by its inclusion in the book Freakonomics, which Levitt co-wrote.
Critics have argued that Donohue and Levitt's methodologies are flawed and that no statistically significant relationship between abortion and later crime rates can be proven. Criticisms include the assumption in the Donohue-Levitt study that abortion rates increased substantially since 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade eliminated many restrictions in the United States; critics use census data to show that the changes in the overall abortion rate could not account for the decrease in crime claimed by the study's methodology (legal abortions had been permitted under limited circumstances in many states prior). Other critics state that the correlations between births and crime found by Donohue–Levitt do not adequately account for confounding factors such as reduced drug use, changes in demographics and population densities, or other contemporary cultural changes.
See also
- Freakonomics by Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner; Chapter 4 discusses this effect.
- Freedomnomics by John Lott; Chapter 4 discusses this effect.
- Statistical correlations of criminal behaviour
- Roe effect
- Title X
- Unintended pregnancy
