I got the idea from a book called 'Freakonomics' by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. I feel like it would never be given a chance in Trinidad but I feel it would totally work.

The authors shared that in the 70s, crime in the US was on the rise - there was an increase in the occurence of murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults. As such, all the crime experts at the time predicted that things were going to continue going downhill - crime would continue to rise and things would get far worse in the coming decades. They were wrong.

Two decades later, they saw the complete opposite. Crime had reduced significantly in the 90s. The question is why?

It turns out, 2 decades before the 90s when crime dropped, in 1973 to be specific, a US Supreme Court decision (Roe v. Wade) legalized ab0rtion (let's call it 'big A' because reddit isn't allowing us to type the word out). What did this have to do with crime?

Crime dropped 18-20 years after the big A was legalized because the babies usually born into poor situations (absent fathers, underage mothers, poor financial situations, poor social situations, abusive situations, etc) - the babies born into these situations are at higher risk to falling into gangs, crime, etc. So now that babies in these situations could be aborted in the 70s, they were just never born, and didn't reach adulthood and become criminals in the 90s which is what led to the significant reduction in crime, despite the predictions of the best minds at the time.

I'm so intrigued at this idea - one we'll never accept here in Trinidad because of our religious thinking, but it seems fundamentally sound. Let's take two of our biggest problems - gang violence and robberies.

We all know that many men are out here looking to bull without commitment, or 'hit and run'. They're not looking for love or commitment (not all men of course, but many) and there are many men that even target teenage girls. Based on these statistics, there were over 4000 teenage pregnancies between 2014/15-2019. That's ~1000 a year. I even know some in my neighborhood. Imagine 4000 teenagers being impregnated - what fraction of the men do you think stick around? What fraction of both the men and those girls do you think are mature enough to raise a baby? What fraction of those men and girls are financially stable enough to raise a child when the rest of us adults with jobs out here catching our nehneh?

So when these men do their hit and run and leave these girls with a baby and no financial or emotional support, it becomes a high-risk situation for poverty, poor parenting, poor social support, etc. And it's more likely these children will grow up displaced, fatherless, poor relationships with their parents, etc and it's so much easier for them to fall into gangs, or miss out on a solid education so they either have to choose between a low-paying job in a tough country, or roberries to make a living.

That is not to say every single child in those situations are destined to become criminals - but there is a higher risk and I've seen this pattern play out over and over again in the hotspot I live in. So my anecdote aligns with the theory.

My proposed solution to crime is to legalize the big A so that the 'couples' who get pregnant and are not ready for a baby can reverse the decision (within certain parameters of course, e.g. only before X months). Make it dog cheap to access these procedures. Remove the social stigma. Maybe even hand out free birth control in schools, because enough teens going to be doing the deed anyway that it's better for them to be protected than not. Teach sex ed, etc (I was never shown how to put on a condom in school or why and my parents didn't teach me either).

Perhaps if we do this, there will be less babies born in high-risk situations and perhaps in 20 years, there will be less maladjusted people in our society contributing to the problem. What do you think?

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