Criminal investigators are used to dealing with mysteries. However, one unsolved mystery has many parts of the law enforcement community scratching their heads: Why did crime rates across America drop during the 1990s? The statistics show dramatic declines in some categories. Murder rates were down by as much as 42 percent and robbery rates declined by as much as 44 percent during the early 1990s.

What happened? That's the mystery. Some people point to changes in how crimes were reported. Others say putting more people in prison caused the drop. Others attribute the statistical changes to a drop in crack cocaine use. Still others say that the Roe v.Wade court decision may have played a part. Others lay the credit at the feet of a more robust economy with more jobs.

Join Ira and guests in this hour of Science Friday, live from the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco, for a look at how social scientists look at crime. Can sorting out the causes of crime make for better public policy? Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (3-4 Eastern). Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests:
Franklin Zimring
Author, "The Great American Crime Decline" (Oxford University Press, 2006)
William G. Simon Professor of Law and Wolfen Distinguished Scholar
Boalt Hall School of Law
University of California, Berkeley

Richard Rosenfeld
Professor, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of Missouri-St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri

Janet Lauritsen
Professor, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of Missouri-St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri

Alfred Blumstein
J. Erik Jonsson University Professor of Urban Systems and Operations Research
Director of the National Consortium on Violence Research
Heinz School of Public Policy & Management
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Books/Articles Discussed:

"The Great American Crime Decline" by Franklin Zimring. Oxford University Press, 2006.

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This segment produced by Annette Heist