A lead balloon theory for rising and falling crime rates?

This past weekend, the Washington Post has this fascinating story about research linking lead exposure and criminal activity.  Here are snippets:

The theory offered by the economist, Rick Nevin, is that lead poisoning accounts for much of the variation in violent crime in the United States. It offers a unifying new neurochemical theory for fluctuations in the crime rate, and it is based on studies linking children’s exposure to lead with violent behavior later in their lives.

What makes Nevin’s work persuasive is that he has shown an identical, decades-long association between lead poisoning and crime rates in nine countries. “It is stunning how strong the association is,” Nevin said in an interview.  “Sixty-five to ninety percent or more of the substantial variation in violent crime in all these countries was explained by lead.”

At the Freakonomics blog, Steve Levitt explores these ideas in this post.  And Michael Connelly has more here at Corrections Sentencing.