Econ Readers

  Levitt returns to the discussion of abortion in chapter 4 by citing Romania as an example. After Nicolae Ceausescu became dictator in 1974, he made abortion illegal to increase the population of his nation. Romania had about four abortions per birth before the ban was implemented. One year after the ban, Romanian birth rates doubled, and those children born after the ban were more likely to be criminals. Ceausesus, however, was overthrown and killed in 1989 by protestors (the ones that would not have been born had Ceauseus not implemented his ban) and abortion became legal. The Romanian abortion case was quite opposite of the one in the States. There were many explanations proposed in the 1990s for the sudden drop in crime rates in the States, however only three of the eight theories were proven to be accurate, and the number one cause wasn't even mentioned. "New policing strategies" was one of the famous theories but it was not even implemented well after crime dropped...

   Levitt begins this chapter by explaining conventional wisdom - which economic theorist John Kenneth Galbraith defines as information that reinforces a person's interest and well-being. Conventional wisdom, according to some, is simple, convenient, comfortable, and comforting—though it may not necessarily be true. In 1989 while surveying Chicago Housing Projects, University of Chicago Ph.D. Student Sudhir Venkatesh befriended members of the Black Gangster Disciples Nation. One gang member in particular - J.T., a college graduate who excelled at business and had assumed the role of head- came to intrigue Venkatesh greatly over time. Over six years he spent with them, witnessing firsthand their operation which included illegal activity - drugs, weapons dealing, robbery, etc. During his inspection, he found that the gang followed the same guidelines and procedures as a franchised company. Sudhir learned that this gang was just one branch of an even larger criminal organization ...

  The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded by six lawyers after the civil war and was initially a prank group that later evolved into a terrorist organization targeting freed slaves. The KKK had died down within a decade of its creation but would come back stronger and bigger in 1920 with about eight million members whereas this time around they not only targeted blacks but also Jews, communists, immigrants, and other minorities. Stetson Kennedy, a southern man who had close relatives in the KKK, sought to speak out against prejudice while also highlighting how we were at risk of becoming victims of Klan terrorism. To break this cycle of oppression and violence, he decided to infiltrate the organization by going undercover- joining them without revealing who he was and taking part in their activities until they wanted him for higher membership status. As time went on, he learned everything there was about these people. One of the KKK's terrorist tactics was lynching, which, when examined...