Rising crime statistics are not all that they seem [npr.org]

Ingrid Cockhren 11/4/229:00 AM

By Sandhya Dirks, Photo: Unsplash, National Public Radio, November 3, 2022

In the run up to the midterms, we keep hearing about a crime wave. But the claims are often rife with misinformation and racism.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Talk with voters this fall, and it won't take long for someone to mention crime. It is a problem that people feel. Republicans, in their media, have played up the threat of crime during this election season, but what do the numbers really show? NPR's Sandhya Dirks reports.

SANDHYA DIRKS, BYLINE: Is crime really rising? Turns out that question is incredibly complicated. So is the answer. Take the FBI crime statistics for 2021 - at first glance, up on homicides, down on property crimes, similar to 2020. But because of a long-planned change in reporting standards, most cities didn't report their 2021 crime numbers to the FBI, says Fordham law professor John Pfaff.

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Max TaylorMember

Oooh, great add to a list I've been creating of ways in which "data-driven science and policy" contain underlying biases and flaws.

Everything wants to be evidence-based now, with an almost dogmatic faith that it's the best approach and best practice. Yet we, time and again, fail to heed the lesson of stories like this or work to challenge or fix how data is defined and how science is done in practice.

11/4/221:38 PM

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