Round-up: At what age does mental functioning peak?

The most interesting articles that came to our attention this week

How Britain has become safer and scarier. Ben Sixsmith reconciles evidence that violent crime in Britain has fallen with the perception that the country has become more dangerous. He notes that mass stabbing events have become substantially more common, with no known cases prior to the 1990s. This helps to explain the discrepancy, he notes, because indiscriminate, sensational, public violence is uniquely disturbing.

Infrastructure Inequality: Who pays the cost of road roughness? Lindsey Currier and colleagues examine the roughness (or “bumpiness”) of American roads, using vertical acceleration data taken from the smartphones of Uber drivers. They find that vehicle speeds are slower on rougher roads, all else being equal, leading to social welfare losses. They also find that roads in poor and Black neighbourhoods are significantly rougher.