Petrol & Powder
Well-Known Member
I have to agree with Bret concerning crime statistics. Anyone that has ever been involved with any type of crime reporting and the resulting data that is derived from that reporting, knows the fallacies related that that work.
Rural sheriffs and small-town police chiefs notoriously under report crime. This is done to give the impression of low crime and the impression of successful policing. Burglaries become larcenies or trespassing. Malicious wounding (Aggravated assault in some states) becomes misdemeanor assault. Auto theft becomes simple larceny, etc.
The opposite occurs in large urban areas where funding is driven by crime statistics. In those areas they have given up on attempts of concealing crime and exaggerate their crime at times to justify increased funding. Malicious woundings get double counted by the persons present and not by the event or number of victims. Unfounded reports get added to the data, etc.
You can skew statistics anyway you want and get the data you desire.
Even within cities, when you take out the outlying extremes, you will get rates that look far closer to the national averages. There is a far different atmosphere in midtown Manhattan than in the South Bronx. Same holds true for South side Chicago and The Loop. I’m not saying NYC and Chicago are great places but just like there’s a difference between upstate New York and New York City, there’s a difference between the south Bronx and the city as a whole.
Bad people can (and often do) get concentrated in urban cesspools. But bad people can and do exist anywhere there are people. Good, honorable people can also be found in some surprising places.
Rural sheriffs and small-town police chiefs notoriously under report crime. This is done to give the impression of low crime and the impression of successful policing. Burglaries become larcenies or trespassing. Malicious wounding (Aggravated assault in some states) becomes misdemeanor assault. Auto theft becomes simple larceny, etc.
The opposite occurs in large urban areas where funding is driven by crime statistics. In those areas they have given up on attempts of concealing crime and exaggerate their crime at times to justify increased funding. Malicious woundings get double counted by the persons present and not by the event or number of victims. Unfounded reports get added to the data, etc.
You can skew statistics anyway you want and get the data you desire.
Even within cities, when you take out the outlying extremes, you will get rates that look far closer to the national averages. There is a far different atmosphere in midtown Manhattan than in the South Bronx. Same holds true for South side Chicago and The Loop. I’m not saying NYC and Chicago are great places but just like there’s a difference between upstate New York and New York City, there’s a difference between the south Bronx and the city as a whole.
Bad people can (and often do) get concentrated in urban cesspools. But bad people can and do exist anywhere there are people. Good, honorable people can also be found in some surprising places.
...I'm gonna stay up all night and count all the gun shots I hear from my bedroom window in my small town. Then I'm gonna call the authorities in Minneapolis and ask what number of gunshots their high tech "shot-spotter" recorded. I'm gonna bet the ratio will be somewhere around 1 to 800
