Why is crime falling during a recession? 5 theories

Violent crime dropped by over 5 percent in 2009, says the F.B.I, even though far more people were out of work. What gives?

Police departments can experiment with new ways of policing crime thanks to funds from the 2009 stimulus package.
(Image credit: Corbis)

Not only did violent crime fall for the third year in a row last year, according to new F.B.I. statistics — dropping 5.3 percent from 2008 figures — crime fell across the board, including a remarkable 17.1 percent plummet in motor vehicle thefts. But experts are puzzled by the fact that this trend coincides with a surge in the national poverty rate. After all, says Liz Goodwin at Yahoo News, don't "desperate times give rise to desperate measures"? (Watch an al Jazeera report about falling crime rates.) Here, some of the reasons why experts think a rise in joblessness hasn't provoked a rise in criminal activity:

1. A better-funded, more innovative police force

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