Older Whites Driving Rise In Crime

Kevin Drum has an interesting look at the recent rise in crime with race and age-specific data that is provided by the state of California. Federal crime statistics do not provide any breakdowns for either age or race, but California does and the state can probably be used as a proxy for most of the country. According to Donald Trump and Republicans, crime is being driven by foreign terrorists, illegal Mexicans, and out-of-control gangs. But the data in California shows that this is not the case at all.

It is actually older whites that have driven the increase in violent crime in that last couple of years. In fact, the violent crime rate for non-whites under 30 has dropped over 1%. There are probably a number of reasons for this. But Drum has always been a big proponent that the drop in crime all over the world coincided with efforts to remove lead from the environment. And these statistics are certainly in line with that theory. So the next time Trump talks about rising crime, the very drivers of that trend will probably be the majority of his audience.