The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime

We provide evidence that legitimate abortion has greatly contributed to the recent decline in crime. After legalization of abortion, the crime began to fall in about 18 years. The five states that allowed abortion in 1970 experienced a depression faster than other parts of the country legitimized with Roy v. Wade in 1973. From the 1970s to the 1980s, crime rates fell sharply in the 1990s in countries with high abortion rates. In abortion-prone countries, only those born after the legalization of abortion are aborted compared to countries with few abortions. Legal abortion seems to account for 50% of the recent decline in crime rate

Publication: Donohue, John J., III, Steven D. Levitt. "Effects of legal abortion on crime", Quarterly Economics Journal, 2001, Volume 116 (May 2), 379-420. Thank you for your help

Ste ven Levitt of University of Chicago and John Donohue of Yale University reconsidered this claim in the 2001 papers "The Effects of Legal Abortion on Crime". Donohue and Levitt point out that men between the ages of 18 and 24 are most likely to commit crimes. The data shows that the crime rate in the United States began to decline in 1992. Donohue and Levitt believe that no children were welcomed after the legalization in 1973, which led to a reduction in crime in 18 years and sharply declined in 1995 since 1992. Originally the highest age at which a premature baby commits a crime

We provide evidence that legitimate abortion has greatly contributed to the recent decline in crime. After legalization of abortion, the crime began to fall in about 18 years. The five states that allowed abortion in 1970 experienced a depression faster than other parts of the country legitimized with Roy v. Wade in 1973. From the 1970s to the 1980s, crime rates fell sharply in the 1990s in countries with high abortion rates. In abortion-prone countries, only those born after the legalization of abortion are aborted compared to countries with few abortions. Legal abortion seems to account for 50% of the recent decline in crime rate

When there is a campaign on the legalization of abortion, many aspects of abortion policy are subject to intense debate. However, a frequently discussed question is how the legalization of abortion affects the incidence of abortion. We can hardly offer cross-country comparisons between Lancet research and recent Guttmacher research. This is because most countries where abortion is restricted today are developing countries. A comparison of indigenous developing countries and wealthy industrialized democracy provides little information on how abortion legality affects abortion rates

Some countries use abortion laws to recognize that rape is a legal basis for receiving safe abortion services. Because rape is a crime, these abortion laws have criminal and medical factors that lead to the participation of legal and medical expertise. The most common purpose of the law is to provide safe abortion services to rape survivors. According to the purpose of a particular abortion law, the law usually requires that a woman undergo a physical examination before it is subject to legal abortion. Some abortion laws are ambiguous and introduce uncertainty to the steps that medical staff must follow in conducting health checkups. Another set of abortion laws leaves no room for regulation and is too strict to cope with changing socio-economic circumstances. Still others need medical examination as a necessary condition of abortion. Therefore, there are still many abortion laws in this book.

Rape as a legal indicator for abortion: influence and result of medical examination