Economy Down, Crime Up

I have often made the case that increasingly difficult economic times will spur an increase in crime, especially opportunistic acts by desperate but otherwise law-abiding individuals. Yet while that might seem self evident, there is some debate about it. Some criminologists have argued, for example, that the link is weak. Among other things, they cite the fact that crime rates rose during the early years of the Great Depression but then fell. Others give equal weight to factors such as the "br