The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime

Donohue, John J.; Levitt, Steven D.

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The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime

NBER Working Paper No. w8004

67 Pages Posted: 12 Nov 2000 Last revised: 16 Nov 2022

See all articles by John J. Donohue

John J. Donohue

Stanford Law School; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Steven D. Levitt

University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); American Bar Foundation

There are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 2000

Abstract

We offer evidence that legalized abortion has contributed significantly to recent crime reductions. Crime began to fall roughly 18 years after abortion legalization. The 5 states that allowed abortion in 1970 experienced declines earlier than the rest of the nation, which legalized in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. States with high abortion rates in the 1970s and 1980s experienced greater crime reductions in the 1990s. In high abortion states, only arrests of those born after abortion legalization fall relative to low abortion states. Legalized abortion appears to account for as much as 50 percent of the recent drop in crime.

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Donohue, John J. and Levitt, Steven D., The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime (November 2000). NBER Working Paper No. w8004, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=249508