I'm mixed on Kevin Drum- sometimes I like his writing, sometimes he makes me mad, but this is interesting reading. I haven't read the full article on Mother Jones yet (link in the article) but the Drum piece doesn't do any political or cultural blaming; it just really seems to finger lead as one, and possibly the most likely, culprit in the upswing in crime America saw from the 1960's to the 1990's.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-dru...ime-connection
And there's an interesting and nice tidbit, isn't there? That crime is at its lowest level in half a century.