Researchers told Straight Arrow there is no single explanation — or consensus — for why crime is falling so dramatically. “It was a good surprise,” Ernesto Lopez, the report’s co-author, told Straight Arrow. Demographic changes and young people spending more time home alone may also be contributing to falling crime rates, Lopez told Straight Arrow. Experts told Straight Arrow the downward trend could continue. Right now, he told Straight Arrow, “there is no ‘virus’ like a drug epidemic.”