The Millennial Crime Wave

No one should be surprised by the latest spike in crime and opioid usage. Our largest generation ever, the Millennials, is in prime crime age. Young immigrants are expected to continue to grow its ranks. At the same time, technological innovation continues to accelerate disruptive innovation and pressure our already stressed out labor force. Although official unemployment figures show "full employment," millions of people have given up looking for work and are not being counted in the headline statistics. (And the robot revolution is just beginning....)

The abundant, under-educated Millennials are being disrupted by technology and discounted by government statistics. Crime and drug abuse naturally follow... or so it would seem. Like any trend, pinpointing causation can be tricky. In fact during the 2007-2008 "Financial Crisis" and continuing until 2015, most crime continued it's long term decline. What other factors might be increasing crime and drug abuse today?

Could it be the so-called "Ferguson Effect?" Are we to believe that crime is increasing because police are unwilling to do their job due to the very real possibility that their actions will merit greater scrutiny today than a few years ago? Is police inaction causing more crime? Maybe, but I put more faith in our police.

Some have courageously ventured that Roe v Wade and the increase in abortions that followed led to a drastic drop in crime 18+ years after it's passage. Could we now be seeing a resurgence in crime related to the decrease in abortions that resulted from the growth of state-level restrictions that swept across the country in the 1990's? If so, then the crime wave has only just begun.