Every integer represents a human being murdered, raped, robbed, mugged, or subjected to an aggravated assault. Criminals got the message that there was something for nothing out there. In the late 1970s society began to toughen up. As the number of prisoners went up, the rate of violent crime climbed at a sharply decreasing rate. In the past few years the violent crime rate has decreased absolutely.
Policy is pedagogy.
Several decades of liberal welfare policy have taught young girls and women that if they have a child, but do not have either a husband, savings, or a job, the friendly government will step in to provide cash, medical care, and food and possibly day care, job training, and education. Such benefits can look appealing to a teenager living in the inner city. Among blacks the rate has reached almost 70 percent. Failed social welfare policies have created a culture of dependency that is demoralizing for individuals, devastating for families, and dangerous for society. Nor did he.