[R] Off-Topic: Crime Statistics Don't Pay

[Bert Gunter]

WARNING: COMPLETELY OFF TOPIC -- Nothing to do with R.

I thought readers of this list might enjoy the following. The link to
the full article is at the bottom. I hope this is not "too"
inappropriate.

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Overconfidence in crime statistics doesn’t pay. In a new study, a team
of criminologists makes the case that reported crime rates should
acknowledge uncertainty in the data. The research demonstrates that
rankings of cities as safer or more dangerous — which can influence
tourism and tax spending — can be highly misleading.

“If you look at crime rates from year to year and you see a change,
there’s a fundamental ambiguity in whether that change is caused by a
real change in crime, a change in reporting or some of both,” says
criminologist Robert Brame of the University of North Carolina at
Charlotte, a coauthor of the new study. “Our position is we should own
that. There’s ambiguity here and we should learn to deal with it.”
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Aside from, "Well, duhhh...," my reaction was:  what other misleading
"data" are being thrown around in the public domain whose uncertainty
has been blithely ignored.... Don't answer that!

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/340450/title/Crime_numbers_may_mislead_

Cheers,
Bert

-- 

Bert Gunter
Genentech Nonclinical Biostatistics

Internal Contact Info:
Phone: 467-7374
Website:
http://pharmadevelopment.roche.com/index/pdb/pdb-functional-groups/pdb-biostatistics/pdb-ncb-home.htm