Archaeologists do it in holes: Tales from the stratigraphy

[Razgovory]

Jos was right after all. Cars will be seen as the root cause of the end of Western civilization by future historians.

The article (and your comment) reminds me of one of my favourite theories - that the 90s drop in the crime rate was caused by banning leaded gasoline in the 1970s.

It would be interesting to see if the crime rate dropped first in countries that first banned lead in gasoline.

[viper37]

Jos was right after all. Cars will be seen as the root cause of the end of Western civilization by future historians.

The article (and your comment) reminds me of one of my favourite theories - that the 90s drop in the crime rate was caused by banning leaded gasoline in the 1970s.

It would be interesting to see if the crime rate dropped first in countries that first banned lead in gasoline.

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/CAN/canada/crime-rate-statistics

The ban took effect in 1990.

We're off topic, but I'm never a fan of these "one factor" to define huge societal changes.

I think it's a major influence, but not all of it.

[HVC]

I still prefer the abortion explanation.

Although Americas imprison everyone strategy started around the same time too, right?

[Sheilbh]

I think the lead one could be something to do with it because it's not just America - my understanding is the decline in crime is more or less all around the world in countries with loads of different criminal justice systems and approaches.

It's something that sounds mad but might actually be true.

[Barrister]

Jos was right after all. Cars will be seen as the root cause of the end of Western civilization by future historians.

The article (and your comment) reminds me of one of my favourite theories - that the 90s drop in the crime rate was caused by banning leaded gasoline in the 1970s.

It would be interesting to see if the crime rate dropped first in countries that first banned lead in gasoline.

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/CAN/canada/crime-rate-statistics

The ban took effect in 1990.

We're off topic, but I'm never a fan of these "one factor" to define huge societal changes.

I think it's a major influence, but not all of it.

I think that 1990 may have been the final, 100% "ban" - but that leaded gasoline has been phased out for a long time before that.  In particular cars had been designed to use unleaded gas since the 1970s (which is part of why car horsepower took such a huge drop in that time period).

[Razgovory]

I think the lead one could be something to do with it because it's not just America - my understanding is the decline in crime is more or less all around the world in countries with loads of different criminal justice systems and approaches.

It's something that sounds mad but might actually be true.

Well in the West.  I have a feeling that Russia did not experience a decline in crime in the 1990's.

[crazy canuck]

I think the lead one could be something to do with it because it's not just America - my understanding is the decline in crime is more or less all around the world in countries with loads of different criminal justice systems and approaches.

It's something that sounds mad but might actually be true.

That is not accurate.  world wide crime rates did not uniformly decrease.  In some areas the crime rate shot up. 

I posted an academic paper showing the problems with the leaded gas hypothesis the last time this came up.  The better explanation for decreasing rates of crime in the US, Canada, and Western Europe is an aging population.

[viper37]

Jos was right after all. Cars will be seen as the root cause of the end of Western civilization by future historians.

The article (and your comment) reminds me of one of my favourite theories - that the 90s drop in the crime rate was caused by banning leaded gasoline in the 1970s.

It would be interesting to see if the crime rate dropped first in countries that first banned lead in gasoline.

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/CAN/canada/crime-rate-statistics

The ban took effect in 1990.

We're off topic, but I'm never a fan of these "one factor" to define huge societal changes.

I think it's a major influence, but not all of it.

I think that 1990 may have been the final, 100% "ban" - but that leaded gasoline has been phased out for a long time before that.  In particular cars had been designed to use unleaded gas since the 1970s (which is part of why car horsepower took such a huge drop in that time period).

Yes, there were a lot of cars on the market using unleaded gas by then.  IIRC, when I bought my first car in 1990, it was unleaded gas, and so was dad's personal car from 2 years earlier.  Pick up trucks were either diesel or regular "leaded" fuel.

I