Cash is the mother's milk of crime. Its appeal to criminals is clear. Unlike cars or paintings, it can be concealed immediately after being pinched. It has no security features to prevent its being easily and anonymously spent on legal or illegal goods. Unlike nearly any other object that can be stolen, it needs no fence. But a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that electronic payments led to a drop of 9.8% in the overall crime rate and caused the rates of burglary, assault, and larceny to fall by 7.9%, 12.5%, and 9.6% respectively. The introduction of electronic payments was also associated with a lower number of arrests, an indication that the crime rates decline did not stem from more aggressive policing. The paper said that the shift from cash to cards since 1990 debit-card transactions have risen 27-fold, whereas cash volume has grown by just 4% a year may have also contributed to the decline in crime.
Which of the following conclusions can most properly be drawn from the information above?

Options

A. Criminals' need for cash motivates much predatory street crime
B. The more payment transactions are digitized, the less opportunity for crime
C. If cash motivates crime, an absence of cash can reduce crime
D. A cashless economy leads to a safer society