Caroline Fraser

It's just started going up and up and up.

And you see this, unfortunately, across the country.

The rate of violent crime in the 70s and 80s rose to heights that had not been seen before.

In this country.

Well, there are various theories that have been put forth.

I mean, people have pointed out that in the mid-'70s was when the baby boom generation, which was large in terms of its population density, increased.

Those people had started to kind of come of age.

They'd entered the period when you're most likely to commit crimes, which is your 20s or 30s.

And so there was that.

There was a lot of economic uncertainty.

There was a recession.

Nixon was in the White House early on in the 70s.

There was the Vietnam War.

there had been a lot of violence during the 60s.

And so people point to those factors as contributing to this as well.

But I think also, you know, based on the science that's being done, you do need to look at the toxins that were becoming really, really prevalent.

The

Lead, cadmium is another heavy metal that's very similar to lead in the body in terms of its association with aggression.

Zinc, manganese, all these things were being— Zinc?

Yeah.