Reducing the 52% drop to a 47% drop doesn't change the point much.
edit - though I agree that the data isn't good enough to really support any conclusions yet. That would take about ten years and several different cities.
Besides a failure to understand which number is which is a percentage change, the data they link to shows a 24% increase in crimes against people.
I don't know why anyone thought this was a good enough article to upvote. Someone out there is working on a good article about the effects of legalization on crime rates. This isn't it.
To be honest, beyond the obvious fall in weed related arrests I wouldn't expect legalisation of the stuff to have much of an effect on crime either way above the background noise level, at least in the short term. You might be able to tease something out with a long term epidemiological study, but that will take a lot of time and a lot of data points. I could be wrong but I suspect that reality will be stubbornly a lot more boring on this particular topic than either the doomsayers or the evangelists will like. On a long term, I could see some real and lasting benefits from the reduced arrests and incarcerations and the social identity effects of dissociating the use of the drug from crime.
