Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The: GREGORY STANFORD; Crime rate explanation isn't black and white

Crime peaked in America in 1994. Of every 1,000 people 12 and older that year, 51 fell victim to violent crime, according to federal figures. By 2004, the rate had dropped by more than half, to 21 per 1,000.

That spectacular decline has befuddled the experts. The explanations smarter policing, demographic changes, an improved economy failed to satisfy fully.

Enter maverick economist Steven Levitt, who floats the brash theory that Roe vs. Wade prompted crime's free fall. The 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion has meant fewer unwanted babies, who, he argues, are more likely than wanted babies to later turn to crime.

Levitt includes that theory in his book "Freakonomics," which came out in May.

The theory has many critics, including William Bennett, education secretary under President Reagan, drug czar under the first President Bush, author of books on morality and radio talker.

A week before last, a caller to his syndicated show, "Morning in America," remarked: "I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe vs. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media just doesn't never touches this at all."

Sensibly, Bennett said he would not argue for the pro-life position on that basis. He likened the caller's argument to Levitt's claim that, in Bennett's words, "crime is down because abortion is up." Fair comment.

But then, the blackjack aficionado played the race card a surprise because the card didn't appear to have been in the deck.

He said: "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could if that were your sole purpose you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."

He immediately added: "That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."

Many people took offense at Bennett's remarks, including, according to his spokesman, President Bush. For many African- Americans, Bennett's comments were but the latest of a steady barrage of insults the race has had to endure.

My fan mail occasionally includes taunts from whites linking black people to crime. The point of the linkage? The writers almost never say. Their loud implication: Black people are inferior to white people. Now, Bennett is rubbing the face of black America in black criminality.

Bennett says his motives are pure. He was merely making a reductio ad absurdum argument that is, disproving a point by taking it to its absurd conclusions.

Well, as long as we're talking reductio ad absurdum, consider this line of thinking:

We could reduce the crime rate by aborting every white baby in this country. Now, this would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down.

Whites would no longer hog all the wealth and the jobs, shunting black people to the edges of society, daily assaulting their self- esteem. African-Americans would become free to live productive lives. Now, we cannot stress enough the moral repugnance of such a course. Still, it would supplant the current ruling caste, bringing African-Americans and others from the edges, where one pastime is street crime, to the mainstream, where they would run the legitimate economy.

Bennett's broadcast remarks caused a stir once before, in 1989, when he appeared as drug czar on "Larry King Live." A caller suggested that he "behead the damn drug dealers."

Bennett's reply: "I mean what the caller suggests is morally plausible. Legally, it's difficult. But somebody selling drugs to a kid? Morally, I don't have any problem with that at all."

Then, as now, Bennett stood by his words.

Drugs help explain the high black crime rate. Some people are dealing drugs for economic survival. Others steal to pay for drug habits. And because the drug war targets the black community, African-American drug users are far more likely to wind up behind bars than white drug users. In short, the factors behind the crime rate are complex.

But the amazing news is the huge drop in the crime rate over the last decade. Don't African-Americans get some credit for that? Or, so long as whites rule, do blacks get only blame for crime?

Gregory Stanford is a Journal Sentinel editorial writer and columnist. His e-mail address is gstanford@journalsentinel.com

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