Witkin's The Crime Bust

The fluctuations in the crime rate depend on the usage of crack cocaine and its markets. In “The Crime Bust,” the author elaborates on many possible causes to the unsteady rates, but only contributes to part of the downward cline (Witkin 1-4). For instance, one of the most cited causes to the crime rates, policing strategies, is not the key factor in crime reduction because it is not constant with every city. “The crime rate has also dropped precipitously in cities like Washington, D.C., where the police department has been, at best, troubled and, at worst, thoroughly dysfunctional. Conversely, a metropolitan area like Nashville, which has increased its police manpower by 16 percent since 1994, has nonetheless seen its annual murder totals …show more content…
People needed to have cash on hand, so they would result to gun-point robbing. Disputes also happened amongst the market. (Witkin 4). In the 1990’s the crack cocaine “boom” began to diminish, the younger populations were testing positive for cocaine usage less and less. “…in Detroit, for instance, [young users of cocaine] dropped from 45 percent in 1987 to just 5 percent in 1996. In Manhattan, the proportion fell from 70 percent in 1987 to 21 percent in 1996” (Witkin 5). He contributes the fall partially to “younger brother syndrome.” This means teens are turning away from the drug usage because they look at older siblings who’ve experienced the bad effects of cocaine. Bruce Johnson of the National Development and Research Institutes in New York explains that teens are declining from cocaine because they find it uncool (Witkin 5; “Ex-cons on Crime,” Page 37). Witkin also describes that the police and imprisonment took a toll on cocaine. Mark Kleiman of the School of Public Policy and Social Research at the University of California—Los Angeles explains that anyone who sells in the open, is setting the stage to an unfortunate ending (Witkin