Studies have shown that ceasing the biannual time change will help decrease robbery and murder rates.
Posted by The Charlie Kirk Show, Checked
- Sources
- 2 contradict4 support3 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 60%
The Charlie Kirk ShowAug 5, 2026
The sources consistently support that extra evening daylight from daylight saving time reduces robbery, but murder evidence is weaker and mixed, and no source studies permanently ceasing the time change as such. The claim's robbery element is well supported, while its murder element rests on a single working paper and conflicting review results.
What was said
… Yeah. It's He says it's foolish, inconvenient, in some cases very costly for cities and states with watchtowers and hard to reach places. It costs millions of dollars. A recent case was made that it is also bad for your health, and the anxiety it creates, leading medical, crime, and economic studies have shown that ceasing the biannual time change, giving us one extra hour of natural sunlight in the evenings, will help decrease robbery and murder rates, reduce car accidents, et cetera, et cetera. So, okay, devil's advocate here. So, Danny on our team grew up in the upper Midwest. …
The Charlie Kirk Show · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. The murder element is not consistently supported: a 2026 literature review finds homicide and murder effects of DST are mixed across studies, with several reporting no effect, and the 2013 W&M report says murder was hard to measure.[3][5]
Supports. Doleac and Sanders find robbery falls about 7% after the shift to DST, with the largest drop in the sunset hour when evening daylight increases.[1][4]
Supports. Additional studies report robbery declines of 28.8% in sunset hours and 40% in the most-affected hour, and an Indiana DST expansion reduced armed robbery and violent crime.[3][6][7]
Context. The murder reduction figure of 43% comes from a forthcoming working paper described in a news article, not from a peer-reviewed or primary study in the sources.[8]
Context. The studies evaluate adopting or shifting to DST, not permanently ending the biannual change, and a systematic review finds fall DST-offset associated with more crimes causing physical harm, so the policy effect is not directly tested.[2][9]
Sources
9 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 2 primary, 5 not rated
- 1The Origins of Daylight Saving Timesnopes.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2Science Says: How daylight saving time affects healthapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 3Daylight Saving Time spurs drop in crime rate | W&M News Archivewm.edu · primary source · cited for: contradicts, supports
- 4How Ambient Light Influences Criminal Activitymgaleg.maryland.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 5What Time Will It Be? A Comprehensive Literature Review on Daylight Saving Time - Philipp Neumann, Korbinian von Blanckenburg, 2025journals.sagepub.com · not rated · cited for: contradicts
- 6The role of ambient light in shaping public safety: Evidence from daylight saving timeonlinelibrary.wiley.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 7Reducing Crime Through Public Policy: Evidence from the 2006 ...link.springer.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 8Bright Lights, Safe Cities: How Daylight Saving Fights Crimenextcity.org · not rated · cited for: context
- 9Daylight-Saving Time & Health: A Systematic Review of ...medrxiv.org · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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