And you don't want to know about some of the other problems with the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports. IRRC, they are fine for what the FBI intended but a lot of reseachers don't read the data descriptions as closely as they should.
John Kane Kingston ON Canada > -----Original Message----- > From: gunter.ber...@gene.com > Sent: Fri, 4 May 2012 09:49:15 -0700 > To: r-help@r-project.org > Subject: [R] Off-Topic: Crime Statistics Don't Pay > > 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. > > ------- > 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.” > --- > > 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 > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ____________________________________________________________ FREE 3D MARINE AQUARIUM SCREENSAVER - Watch dolphins, sharks & orcas on your desktop! ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
