Both have experienced the same drop in crime rates, he notes. The death penalty also has little effect, Crutchfield says. Both have experienced similar drops in crime over the last five years. Most of the expansion has been for drug violations. Yet the crime rate has fallen in other areas.
Bridges is slightly less skeptical.
He notes that while in the 1990s, about 75 percent of the Washington state prison population is incarcerated for violent crimes, the property crime rate has gone down just as fast as the violent crime rate. Historically the correlation just isn't there, Bridges feels. Stopping crime at its source may be one answer, say the threesome. Some community-based prevention programs are helping combat crime, while other efforts are not very effective. Neighborhood block watch groups, adds Weis, seem to be effective against property crime.