Crime surges when we turn our clocks back

When daylight saving time ends in fall, criminals use the extra hour of evening darkness to commit more robberies, The Washington Post reports. The United States extended daylight savings time by a month starting in 2007, allowing researchers to isolate the effects of the time change on society. In a study published 20 October in The Review of Economics and Statistics, researchers found that when people turn their clocks back in fall, robberies rise by 7% over the whole day, with a 27% increase in the hours during and just after sunset. There was no corresponding increase in morning robberies. The findings add momentum to an ongoing debate over whether we should observe daylight savings time year-round.