do areas with high pollution levels have more crime?
If heavy metals and violent crime are associated, Masters et al. say, “ecological measures of environmental pollution, controlling for other variables, should correlate with higher rates of violent crime.” And indeed, Masters’ research shows a strong relationship. Masters et al. created a dataset of all U.S. counties, integrating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory for lead and manganese, crime reports from the FBI, alcoholism statistics from the federal government, and socioeconomic and demographic data from the Census Bureau. “Controlling for such conventional factors as income, population density, and ethnic composition,” the researchers say, “environmental pollution had an independent effect on rates of violent crime.” Furthermore, the researchers say, counties with industrial lead pollution, industrial manganese releases, and higher than average rates of alcoholism “have rates of violent crime over three times that of the national average.” The conve
