https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2013/01/04/secret-cause-of-violent-crime-lead/feed/HotAir is the leading conservative blog for breaking news and commentary covering the Biden administration, politics, media, culture, and current elections.en-usTue, 09 Jun 2026 04:22:38 -0400<![CDATA[Like many good theories, the gasoline lead hypothesis helps explain some things we might not have realized even needed explaining. For example, murder rates have always been higher in big cities than in towns and small cities. We&#8217;re so used to this that it seems unsurprising, but Nevin points out that it might actually have a surprising explanation—because big cities have lots of cars in a small area, they also had high densities of atmospheric lead during the postwar era. But as lead levels in gasoline decreased, the differences between big and small cities largely went away. And guess what? The difference in murder rates went away too. Today, homicide rates are similar in cities of all sizes. It may be that violent crime isn&#8217;t an inevitable consequence of being a big city after all.]]>Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:17:50 -0500<![CDATA[Allahpundit]]>https://hotair.com/headlines/2013/01/04/secret-cause-of-violent-crime-lead-n98918