Government
Are Drug Deals Via Text the Key to the Murder Decline?
A new study finds that cell phones played a significant role in reducing homicides in big cities by limiting face-to-face contact.
Many explanations have been offered for the massive drop in violent crime in U.S. cities, ranging from better neighborhood policing, stronger community organizations, or stricter gun control.
Now a new study by economists Lena Edlund and Cecilia Machado suggests another factor at work: the rise in the use of cell phones. The working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) suggests that cell phone popularization in the 1990s helped to reduce the murder rate in urban areas simply by replacing in-person drug deals with phone calls and text messages.