The US drop in burglary discussed in this thread is not isolated to just burglar...

tonyedgecombe · on Dec 18, 2023

I wonder if this is because consumer goods became much cheaper. Not much point buying a stolen DVD player when a new one is only $25 from Walmart[1].

Ekaros · on Dec 18, 2023

Also why go to homes to steal stuff. When you can go to store and steal new in box...

I wonder if ratio of store theft to burglary has changed...

Jedd · on Dec 18, 2023

Are you suggesting there was a correlated and comparable increase in 'stealing from stores' during this period?

Do you have any data for that?

All the reports mentioning 'shoplifting on the rise' I've seen have been focused on the debunking of this hypothesis.

FirmwareBurner · on Dec 18, 2023

What caused crime to drop in the US?

Galaxeblaffer · on Dec 18, 2023

Free Abortion is a theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legalized_abortion_and_crime_e... . But it's also been criticized. It makes allot of sense to me though.

Edit Just saw another poster posted this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93crime_hypothesis which also sounds like a factor. So i guess there's probably not a singular cause.