There is a General Paradigm for understanding criminal behavior and crime control. One of the General Paradigm’s most important predictions is that “nurturant” factors which improve the ability of young people to develop human and social capital will tend to reduce crime rates over time by decreasing the pool of highly motivated offenders. This lagged nurturance hypothesis predicts that “nurturant” factors at the aggregate level, such as maternal and infant health care, positive parenting, and early education will have an impact on crime rates when the children exposed to a given set of nurturant conditions reach their high-crime adolescent and young-adult years. This study tested the lagged nurturance hypothesis by examining relationships between measures of change in child nurturance and appropriately lagged measures of change in crime rates across nations. The study focused on change in nurturance and crime rather than absolute levels. It was found that several measures of change in child nurturance were associated with subsequent time-lagged changes in crime rates. The data indicate that there is a general tendency for countries that experienced larger improvements in measures of child nurturance from 1960 to 1970 to have experienced lesser increases in violent crime and property crime from 1980 to 1990, thereby supporting the lagged nurturance hypothesis that jurisdictions with better nurturance for small children will have lower crime rates when the children subject to those conditions reach their high-crime age. The support of the lagged nurturance hypothesis has important long-term implications which are discussed. Appendixes A-B and references