View Full Version : Is this true that England has 3x the crime rate of the US?
SUBMAN1
01-20-06, 03:10 PM
Reading this article about gun laws in England and I find that statistic rather amazing. ANyway, this is a good read.
-S
There's Only One Way To Protect Ourselves - And Here's The Proof
By Richard Munday
Today, 96 years ago, London was rocked by a terrorist outrage. Two Latvian anarchists, who had crossed the Channel after trying to blow up the president of France, attempted an armed wages robbery in Tottenham. Foiled at the outset when the intended victims fought back, the anarchists attempted to shoot their way out.
A dramatic pursuit ensued involving horses and carts, bicycles, cars and a hijacked tram. The fleeing anarchists fired some 400 shots, leaving a policeman and a child dead, and some two dozen other casualties, before they were ultimately brought to bay. They had been chased by an extraordinary posse of policemen and local people, armed and unarmed. Along the way, the police (whose gun cupboard had been locked, and the key mislaid) had borrowed at least four pistols from passers-by in the street, while other armed citizens joined the chase in person.
Today, when we are inured to the idea of armed robbery and drive-by shootings, the aspect of the "Tottenham Outrage" that is most likely to shock is the fact that so many ordinary members of the public at that time should have been carrying guns in the street. Bombarded with headlines about an emergent "gun culture" in Britain now, we are apt to forget that the real novelty is the notion that the general populace in this country should be disarmed.
In a material sense, Britain today has much less of a "gun culture" than at any time in its recent history. A century ago, the possession and carrying of firearms was perfectly normal here. Firearms were sold without licence in gunshops and ironmongers in virtually every town in the country, and grand department stores such as Selfridge's even offered customers an in-house range. The market was not just for sporting guns; there was a thriving domestic industry producing pocket pistols and revolvers, and an extensive import trade in the cheap handguns that today would be called "Saturday Night Specials." Conan Doyle's Dr. Watson, dropping a revolver in his pocket before going out about town, illustrates a real commonplace of that time. Beatrix Potters' journal records a discussion at a small country hotel in Yorkshire, where it turned out that only one of the eight or nine guests was not carrying a revolver.
We should not fool ourselves, however, that such things were possible then because society was more peaceful. Those years were ones of much more social and political turbulence than our own: with violent and incendiary suffrage protests, massive industrial strikes where the Army was called in and people were killed, where there was the menace of a revolutionary General Strike, and where the country was riven by the imminent prospect of a civil war in Ireland. It was in such a society that, as late as 1914, the right even of an Irishman to carry a loaded revolver in the streets was upheld in the courts (Rex v. Smith, KB 1914) as a manifestation simply of the guarantees provided by our Bill of Rights.
In such troubled times, why did the commonplace carrying of firearms not result in mayhem? How could it be that in the years before the First World War, armed crime in London amounted to less than 2 percent of what we see today? One answer that might have been taken as self-evident then, but which has become political anathema now, is that the prevalence of firearms had a stabilising influence and a deterrent effect upon crime. Such deterrent potential was indeed acknowledged in part in Britain's first Firearms Act, which was introduced as an emergency measure in response to fears of a Bolshevik upheaval in 1920. Home Office guidance on the implementation of the Act recognised "good reason for having a revolver if a person lives in a solitary house, where protection from thieves and burglars is essential." The Home Office issued more restrictive guidance in 1937, but it was only in 1946 that the new Labour Home Secretary announced that self-defence would no longer generally be accepted as a good reason for acquiring a pistol (and as late as 1951 this reason was still being proffered in three-quarters of all applications for pistol licences, and upheld in the courts). Between 1946 and 1951, we might note, armed robbery, the most significant index of serious armed crime, averaged under two dozen incidents a year in London; today, that number is exceeded every week.
The Sunday Telegraph's Right to Fight Back campaign is both welcome and a necessity. However, an abstract right that leaves the weaker members of society - particularly the elderly - without the means to defend themselves, has only a token value. As the 19th-century jurist James Paterson remarked in his Commentaries on the Liberty of the Subject and the Laws of England Relating to the Security of the Person:
"In all countries where personal freedom is valued, however much each individual may rely on legal redress, the right of each to carry arms - and these the best and the sharpest - for his own protection in case of extremity, is a right of nature indelible and irrepressible, and the more it is sought to be repressed the more it will recur."
Restrictive "gun control" in Britain is a recent experiment, in which the progressive "toughening" of the regulation of legal gun ownership has been followed by an increasingly dramatic rise in violent armed crime. Eighty-four years after the legal availability of pistols was restricted to Firearm Certificate holders, and seven years after their private possession was generally prohibited, they still figure in 58 percent of armed crimes. Home Office evidence to the Dunblane Inquiry prior to the handgun ban indicated that there was an annual average of just two incidents in which licensed pistols appeared in crime. If, as the Home Office still asserts, "there are links between firearms licensing and armed crime," the past century of Britain's experience has shown the link to be a sharply negative one.
Britain was a safer country without our present system of denying firearms to the law-abiding, is deregulation an option? That is precisely the course that has been pursued, with conspicuous success in combating violent crime, in the United States.
For a long time it has been possible to draw a map of the United States showing the inverse relationship between liberal gun laws and violent crime. At one end of the scale are the "murder capitals" of Washington, Chicago and New York, with their gun bans (New York City has had a theoretical general prohibition of handguns since 1911); at the other extreme, the state of Vermont, without gun laws, and with the lowest rate of violent crime in the Union (a 13th that of Britain). From the late Eighties, however, the relative proportions on the map have changed radically. Prior to that time it was illegal in much of the United States to bear arms away from the home or workplace, but Florida set a new legislative trend in 1987, with the introduction of "right-to-carry" permits for concealed firearms.
Issue of the new permits to law-abiding citizens was non-discretionary, and of course aroused a furore among gun control advocates, who predicted that blood would flow in the streets. The prediction proved false; Florida's homicide rate dropped, and firearms abuse by permit holders was virtually non-existent. State after state followed Florida's suit, and mandatory right-to-carry policies are now in place in 35 of the United States.
In a nationwide survey of the impact of the legislation, John Lott and David Mustard of the University of Chicago found that by 1992, right-to-carry states had already seen an 8 percent reduction in murders, 7 percent reduction in aggravated assaults, and 5 percent reduction in rapes. Extrapolating from the 10 states that had then implemented the policy, Lott and Mustard calculated that had right-to-carry legislation been nationwide, an annual average of some 1,400 murders, 4,200 rapes and more than 60,000 aggravated assaults might have been averted. The survey has lent further support to the research of Professor Kleck, of Florida State University, who found that firearms in America serve to deter crime at least three times as often as they appear in its commission.
Over the last 25 years the number of firearms in private hands in the United States has more than doubled. At the same time the violent crime rate has dropped dramatically, with the significant downswing following the spread of right-to-carry legislation. The US Bureau of Justice observes that "firearms-related crime has plummeted since 1993," and it has declined also as a proportion of overall violent offences. Violent crime in total has declined so much since 1994 that it has now reached, the bureau states, "the lowest level ever recorded." While American "gun culture" is still regularly the sensational subject of media demonisation in Britain, the grim fact is that in this country we now suffer three times the level of violent crime committed in the United States.
Today, on this anniversary of the "Tottenham Outrage," it is appropriate that we reflect upon how the objects of outrage in Britain have changed within a lifetime. If we now find the notion of an armed citizenry anathema, what might the Londoners of 1909 have made of our own violent, disarmed society?
Skybird
01-20-06, 06:43 PM
I just used Google for "Richard Munday". Seems he has a long record in propagating free arms for free people. Don't know but wouldn't be surprised if he has connections to firearms industry, or something like that.
I thought that crime rate on streets in Britain has decreased, due to the intense monitoring of public places by surveillance cameras. At least that is whyt they say on TV again and again, and what British police is confirming in interviews occasionally, too..
Kapitan
01-20-06, 07:17 PM
nope in fact america has more crimianl activities than the UK and its crime rate is greater in saying that crime rate has gone up in the last few years
Here in Australia we have a lot of gun restrictions. I know no one who owns a gun, and no one I know has been shot by one either. You can watch a story on the news about someone robbing a store or bank and almost all the time everyone survives.
When the police arrive to stop an armed suspect all they normaly have to do is get out the pepper spray or club and the offender will drop their cricket bat/knife without any violent shootouts taking place.
Not long ago there were some large riots going on in Sydney, cars and buildings were burnt down and there was violence in the streets, but there were very few (if any) deaths. I would hate to see what could of happened if everyone there at the time were carrying guns on them.
Just my opinion anyway, the only way to know for sure if it would work out for the best is to try it.
nope in fact america has more crimianl activities than the UK and its crime rate is greater in saying that crime rate has gone up in the last few years
Care to back that up or is this the man-in-the-street opinion in St, Petersburg?
Kapitan
01-20-06, 07:28 PM
and you think im going to ask my step dad to unlock the door at this time of night
NO!
TteFAboB
01-20-06, 07:58 PM
Statistic is the art of twisting numbers to prove your point.
Therefore, statistics are irrelevant.
However:
I just used Google for "Richard Munday". Seems he has a long record in propagating free arms for free people
This attack on the author is confortable as it makes unecessary to refute his statistics at all, not that any statistic is worth to prove a case.
Last I heard the British police has deep connections to the British government too and are happy with their firepower superiority, can they be trusted either?
Here in Australia we have a lot of gun restrictions. I know no one who owns a gun, and no one I know has been shot by one either
And this is a very good way to start a post, declaring "I don't know" twice, what else you don't know? What you know is that the restrictions in Australia happened after a moment of public commotion, populism at best, instead of investigating the Men who go berserk, ban his instruments and let's all pretend the problem is solved and nobody else will ever go insane again, as people go insane because they are affected by mental waves irradiated from firearms.
Not long ago there were some large riots going on in Sydney, cars and buildings were burnt down and there was violence in the streets
Hooligans? Did they passed by a firearms store by any chance to get affected by the mental waves to get mad? We also have riots over here in Brazil and violence too, busses are burnt with people inside and a young girl got 40% of her body severely burned, our least violent "city" is more violent than Sydney, yet, in our riots nobody dies or gets injuried by firearms either, and we have narco-gun-dealers at hand, illegal guns can be acquired for as low as US$ 25 to US$ 50.
Anyway, statistical comparisons between the USA and European countries usually border the realm of stupidity or bad intelectual faith, it is more appealing to the random uninterested man to be fed a statistic so he can feel satisfied with it.
Most statistics are of very low quality, they don't tell who got shot or why, they don't tell if the person died in the hospital or instantenously, they don't tell who the shooter was, was he a petty robber? Was he a drug-dealer? Did he suffered from any mental disease or were using drugs at the time? Are these deaths/crimes highly focused in specific regions? Were the crimes solved and the criminals arrested? What's the background of the criminal and the victim (socio-cultural-financial, etc..)?
Sure, monopoly of power by the state is not glorious, but Britain is a private club, like many European nations are, it is true the crime in America was reduced in the past decades, but that's not specificaly related to the amount of firearms sold, just like if the crime rises in Britain that is not specificaly related to the amount of firearms not sold.
SUBMAN1
01-21-06, 01:07 AM
Not sure where some people get the statistics, but our violent crime rate in Washington is nose diving. Kapitan - care to share your source of info?
I'm going to ask one of my friends in the UK for his opinion. Maybe we can see what someone on the other side of the pond has to say about it.
-S
SUBMAN1
01-21-06, 01:13 AM
I just used Google for "Richard Munday". Seems he has a long record in propagating free arms for free people. Don't know but wouldn't be surprised if he has connections to firearms industry, or something like that.
I thought that crime rate on streets in Britain has decreased, due to the intense monitoring of public places by surveillance cameras. At least that is whyt they say on TV again and again, and what British police is confirming in interviews occasionally, too..
Hahaha! I just watched a 60 minutes on how public monitoring in England with video cameras actually increased crime! You know what the cameras were used for by their operators? Voyeristic uses only!!! Oh - and to stop teenage loitering. They took a hidden camera into the operators room and all the guys did nothing but rate how big the boobs were from one girl to the next! And to make matters worse, every monitoring station they went to was using the cams for the same thing! Nice use of cams!!! Anyway, they went through the statistics on where people were monitored and the stolen vehicle rate even increased - right in front of the cameras noses!!! I hope you feel safe over there now!
Now the Ironic part - places that were not monitored saw a decrease in crimes, including vehicle theft. Now how the hell does this happen? Seems the cams are not good for much other than gov control, if you ask me.
-S
PS. The vehicle theft increased right after the cams were installed too! And it continually incrased! Maybe its a high to steal a vehicle right out from under the noses of the cameras! Might be a teenage thing.
TteFAboB
01-21-06, 01:55 AM
Yes, cameras can have a Big Brother aspect, but again we come to the same conclusion as before, a camera by itself, like a gun by itself, means NOTHING at all!
You can fit 30 cameras in one short street and it won't do any good if they aren't used properly by human beings at the other end, filling streets with cameras is not enough, you need trained, dedicated, honest operators and a honest government that is not going to use them for Orwellian purposes.
Yet another reason why statistics can be dodgy is the fact that crimes may not be reported or crimes that weren't noticed before can be suddenly discovered.
For example, you could have tons of pickpockets operating in Trafalgar square but because many people may not notice they were stolen (could think they simply lost their itens) or decide not to report to the police as the iten stolen was of little value or the victim doesn't believe the police can return their itens, the official statistic of pickpocketing in Trafalgar square will be low.
Suddenly you attach dozens of cameras in the area or people start reporting more and the official statistic rise up to the sky, such a statistic would be a fraud, pickpocketing never increased in reality, it was simply artificially low before.
Then, let's say the cameras scare pickpocketers off together with increased police activity (prevention, arresting, etc.), the statistic may fall down again, BUT, if the pickpocketers were not all arrested and didn't decided to stop their criminal activities, they might aswell simply switch to another area with less cameras and less police, so, this would be another statistical fraud, while the level of pickpocketing in Trafalgar square would seem to be lower, if the criminals simply start operating in another area nothing was solved at all as they continue to rob and will continue to migrate wherever it is easier for them.
Criminals will always exist no matter the amount of cameras or guns in any society, surely these factors can have positive effects just like they can have no effects at all or even negative effects, it all depends on the capacity of the human beings to enforce intelligent policies properly, can you have low crime in a society with American gun control laws and no security cameras? Yes. Can you have low crime in a society with British-like cameras and utterly restricted gun control policies? Yes. It all depends on the particular case and in the human beings, and this is why I don't appreciate transnational statistical comparisons, even if they were not too drastically twisted, realities may be far too different to have any legislative meaning.
Indeed, cameras alone should not make anyone safer or even feel safer, you need to count on highly professional operators and an efficient police ready to respond, as it is useless to know the government is watching you get robbed if they can't send you decent help or at least use the footage to arrest the bugger.
Kapitan
01-21-06, 03:06 AM
@subman one
violent crime gone up normal crime gone downish not alot but gone down
still annoying cause if i carry a weapon for defence i get arrested yet if i hit punch or threaten my attacker in anyway i still get arrested oh and probly put in prision for assualt and affray.
if i defend my property from burglers and i hit one same thing im the one that gets done not the guy trying to steal my stuff he is free to go no charge.
PAFU**INGTHETIC
Skybird
01-21-06, 06:42 AM
Nive. In Germany there is a strong tendency to push public monitoring by cameras, due to the "good examples they had with it in Britain". Should we expect a massive raise in crime over here as well after the cameras got installed? :-?
Discussed with a guest of my parents yesterday, ex-something-scientist. He described an experiment someone did, some time ago. He assembled specialists from all disciplines, politics, science, sociologists, philosphers, economists, ecologists, artists, etc, and they were given a theoretical freedom to construct the ideal, most well-balanced society. The data was entered in a computer model. All nice and well, there was a lot of reasonable thought, and in the early beginning, everything improved. but just a short time later the variables turned bad. Crime went up, economy went down, ecology worstend, sociological variables worstend. So they tried to correct the communal misdevelopements and repair social life. The attempt only held for short, soon after that things were worse than before. To cut it short - the whole thing went down the drain, every improvement as if by magic sooner or later turned into it'S opposite and created side-effects that messed it up, some times to a degree that things were worse than before.
Participating experts were said to have felt to be brought back to earth very much.
"Where you say "up",
You thereby create "down",
Where you say "left",
therby you define "right".
I'd say its difficult, if not impossible to accurately compare the two countries, with the difference in laws, penalties and attitudes. But IMO there's probably not much to call between the two, we have a roughly similar range of social strata and class distribution and we're lucky enough to be '1st world' countries.
You can use the stats here: http://www.met.police.uk/crimestatistics/ to see what change there's been in the London area of the last few years, but even that's skewed as they frequently change the way the stats are recorded.
TteFAboB
01-21-06, 07:52 AM
How convenient, I just heard an interview with a police Col. from Rio de Janeiro, yes, they installed cameras following the British example, there are few right now but "soon" there should be over 300 cameras covering the entire coast of the city.
He considers these cameras as a mere accessory, he believes they can be usefull to spot and identify criminals and help direct the police response but he doesn't believe they can replace physical police activities for "prevention", there are no statistical studies yet to verify the results of this new surveillance, but given the scandalous bathing suits and even topless women at the beaches I would estimate the "voyeurism" rate is 10x higher than in the British system.
DangerousDaze
01-21-06, 08:28 AM
Stating that CCTV makes crime worse is disingenuous. Check out this report (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hors252.pdf) conducted by the UK home office into the impacts of CCTV on crime based on the findings of 22 separate pieces of research.
The key conclusion is:Of the 22 included evaluations, half (11) found a desirable effect on crime and five found an undesirable effect on crime. Five evaluations found a null effect on crime (i.e., clear
evidence of no effect), while the remaining one was classified as finding an uncertain effect on crime (i.e., unclear evidence of an effect).
Nick
Konovalov
01-21-06, 03:19 PM
Not to mention that to do away with CCTV would be to give away a very important source of evidence collecting ability in piecing together a crime not to mention it is a critical tool in criminal trials. Just think of 7/7 to name a recent ecample here in London or the wite youths in the US who were caught on camera bashing homeless people. I have no problem with CCTV and think it is a crucial tol in he 21st century for law enforcement agencies. And no, I don't think it breaches my human rights or privacy. I am in a public place so why do people have a problem with it?
SUBMAN1
01-21-06, 06:19 PM
Stating that CCTV makes crime worse is disingenuous. Check out this report (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hors252.pdf) conducted by the UK home office into the impacts of CCTV on crime based on the findings of 22 separate pieces of research.
The key conclusion is:Of the 22 included evaluations, half (11) found a desirable effect on crime and five found an undesirable effect on crime. Five evaluations found a null effect on crime (i.e., clear
evidence of no effect), while the remaining one was classified as finding an uncertain effect on crime (i.e., unclear evidence of an effect).
Nick
There is your problem - the research was conducted by the very office that wants them installed. They don't want to look like idiots because their massive expensive system turned out to be a waste of time! :)
-S
XabbaRus
01-21-06, 06:30 PM
Ok well speaking as a Brit, trying to compare UK crime rate and US one based on that pile of crap at the start of the thread is impossible.
UK crime rate 3x that of US?
Is that overall, gun crime, fraud, granny mugging, cat burgling?
Is it per capita of population etc.
Fact is this overall crime has dropped in England and Wales, violent crime however has gone up.
Gun crime, well I'll get back to you on that one, but as it is mostly illegal guns used in gun crime in the UK I guess UK gun laws work. Your average joe in the street isn't going to pop a cap in someones ass just cos he got pissed at someone.
SUBMAN1
01-21-06, 06:53 PM
Ok well speaking as a Brit, trying to compare UK crime rate and US one based on that pile of crap at the start of the thread is impossible.
UK crime rate 3x that of US?
Is that overall, gun crime, fraud, granny mugging, cat burgling?
Is it per capita of population etc.
Fact is this overall crime has dropped in England and Wales, violent crime however has gone up.
Gun crime, well I'll get back to you on that one, but as it is mostly illegal guns used in gun crime in the UK I guess UK gun laws work. Your average joe in the street isn't going to pop a cap in someones ass just cos he got pissed at someone.
That pile of crap you reference is pretty typical world wide. It is accurate as well, but I can't find 3x the US yet since the best data I can come up with is 1996 for now. In the last 9 years, we have seen a drastic decline in the US over what is even pictured here. Anyway, here are the numbers as of 1996 and I'll post some later ones if I can find them (assuming I take the time).
-S
PS. One other thing I should point our - almost 50% of the population 21 and over in Washington state (48%?) has a concealed pistol license (myself included), and no, we don't pop a cap in your ass just because you say that my mother is ugly or something! :)
PPS. Maybe that would happen in England though with all of their bar fights! :lol: Assault by mug could turn into something much worse!
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5316/robbery9xc.gif
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/4928/assault3lx.gif
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7011/burglary7lx.gif
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5008/vehicletheft7tf.gif
XabbaRus
01-21-06, 07:36 PM
Well that was 10 years ago.
And I'm sure you have as many barfights.
I agree the UKs reputation for hard drinking and the consequences are depressing. My solution is to send them to the salt mines in siberia.
See we have thiese things called neds and chavs.
http://www.glasgowsurvival.co.uk/gallery/gallery5.html
My idea is to make a Escape from New Yaork type thing. Take the ****tiest city in the UK. Birmingham or Milto Keynes...buils a 50 foot wall around it and dump them in there.
Or start some sort of profiling, look at their parents look at them and as soon as they breed their offspring are sterilised at birth.
Hmm called Eugenics I think but seriously if you saw them you'd want to do the same. Hmmm maybe our gun laws do need changing. These scum need sorting out.
Or get a bunch of cruise liners con the ned population to go on them, drive them out to the mid Atlantic. Put Maggie Thatcher in a T-boat and sink them...
Abraham
01-22-06, 05:41 AM
In the last 9 years, we have seen a drastic decline in the US over what is even pictured here. Anyway, here are the numbers as of 1996 and I'll post some later ones if I can find them (assuming I take the time).
-S
PS. One other thing I should point our - almost 50% of the population 21 and over in Washington state (48%?) has a concealed pistol license (myself included), and no, we don't pop a cap in your ass just because you say that my mother is ugly or something! :)
PPS. Maybe that would happen in England though with all of their bar fights! :lol: Assault by mug could turn into something much worse!
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5316/robbery9xc.gif
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/4928/assault3lx.gif
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7011/burglary7lx.gif
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5008/vehicletheft7tf.gif
Really interesting, SUBMAN1.
I alkways had the impression that the crime rate in the US was excessive. Well, perhaps caused by Hollywood & TV Series...
I hope you can find some up to date figures.
TteFAboB
01-22-06, 06:35 AM
Gun crime, well I'll get back to you on that one, but as it is mostly illegal guns used in gun crime in the UK I guess UK gun laws work. Your average joe in the street isn't going to pop a cap in someones ass just cos he got pissed at someone.
Another statistical problem we may run across: popping a cap in someone ass just cos someone got pissed is a crime in most nations of the world, including the UK, hence, any legal weapon used to do so automatically becomes illegal, which means the official statistic will depend on the good faith of the police chief AND the researcher to determine if former legal weapons will be included in the illegal pile or into something else, depending on the study this minor issue can make a whole lot of difference or at least distort the final result.
Now if you will allow me to have some fun, if there is anything interesting about gun control laws in the UK it's the Fox hunt law, regardless of my personal opinion about the sport which I find to be actually more of a social event than a sport since the hunter hardly has to do anything at all other than chat and enjoy the day while the dogs do all the work, the Beagles got out (I hope the the cute little things are getting help to find a good home) and shotguns came in:
So the British Lords, Knights of the Queen, are given the right to hunt with shotguns, effectively creating an organized mounted cavalry force, while the British citizens, the humble peasantry are denied the same right, what do we have here? A time-bomb to the return of Monarchy in England. :rotfl:
:rock: :arrgh!:
DangerousDaze
01-22-06, 07:13 AM
There is your problem - the research was conducted by the very office that wants them installed.
The home office didn't conduct the 22 evaluations, they merely aggregated them for the report.
Nick
Deathblow
01-22-06, 07:23 AM
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5316/robbery9xc.gif
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/4928/assault3lx.gif
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7011/burglary7lx.gif
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5008/vehicletheft7tf.gif
Those are very interesting figures, but is the source reliable? and when was the survey done?
Skybird
01-22-06, 10:04 AM
Any data on local spreading patterns? How compares the countryside to the metropoles? statistics are tricky. you need to know about how the raw data was created, how variables were weigthened. Else they do not tell you much, but only manipulate. That' why politicians love to give them so often.
"If I put my head into an oven, and my feet into a refrigerator, my mean temperature would be slightl above average." Giving that mean temperature as the only result would give the impression that I feel nice and well. try it yourself, and you will know why it is nonsens.
If I have one big city with 10% of population, and 70 small villages with the remaining rest of population, the expected higher crime rate in the big city would be eaten up by the expected low crime rates in the small villages.
I bet even the crime rates inside one of the metropoles vary significantly in different city sectors.
I also miss a needed discrimination between various categories of crimes. If murder is the same as theft is the same as wrong parking, the data is messed up even more.
I bet even the crime rates inside one of the metropoles vary significantly. Generally, there is no needed info on the way the examination got conducted, and how the data was created, and what sources for data were used.
If statistics would be given like this, to be published in a scientific magazine, they even wouldn'T mind to send you a negative answer. Those numbers say all and nothing.
When studying, helping the teacher in a seminar I wrote three different works for illustration purposes, short ones, using the same data, and nevertheless each work came to totally different conclusions, statistically, on the basis of the very same original data! Technically (by use of statistically procedures and criterias of classical test theory) everaything was correct. but the correct way I prefrred over different, nevertheless also correct ways, already detemrined and manipulated the outcome. That's how it is with statistics. They are not objective, but determined by arbitrary decisions and subjective priorities.
Overall, if generalizing over the whole country's area, I woul say that there is a higher mean population densityin GB than in the US. the size of the american population is so many times bigger than that of Britain. but the country's territory is FAR bigger in size than Britain, the factor is much higher. If one is generalizing without discriminating as I demended above, the impression can appear that it is like the curves seem to say, at first glance.
Now compare LA and surrounding area, with let'S say Wales. Got the difference?
TteFAboB
01-22-06, 01:04 PM
If statistics would be given like this, to be published in a scientific magazine, they even wouldn'T mind to send you a negative answer. Those numbers say all and nothing.
Hwang Woo Suk. It's not that difficult to trick the "scientific magazines" afterall, as long as you are "scientific enough", you're in.
But the ballet of numbers is a fantastic dance indeed, I had to watch as every number, every study, every source was corrupted and deceitfully twisted to fit an agenda, it wasn't "accidental" like Skybird experiments, a mere funny surprise, but deliberately built as a fraud from start to support a political project, not a casual seminar. Nothing involving "scientific magazines" of course, but worth of mention were the official governmental institutions and Mr. Jorge Werthein & Mr. Julio Jacobo Waiselfisz from the www.unesco.org, a branch of the UN.
Thankfully, the statistical frauds can be deconstructed with relative ease and there's no excuse for lying in a statistical study, which greatly demoralizes the author and utterly shatters every piece of credibility the statistic may have once had, just like the research of Dr. Hwang Woo Suk.
Skybird
01-22-06, 02:58 PM
It was no accidental work by me, but an intentional work, to demonstrate how easily the same raw data can be used to intentionally create the wanted - and different - statistical argument, even if these data are subject to solid statistically processing. As I said, I assisted the teacher in that seminar.
I do not want to give the imprssion that I am expert on statistiocs, though. am not and laready have forgotten most of it. But when studying psychology in Germany, you have several coursed dealing with that every semester, from the first until diploma. Don't remind me of that. I hated it.
Abraham
01-23-06, 02:49 AM
While it is true what Skybird says - certainly about the oven and the fridge - not all is relevant. We don't have to get lost in statistic, sud-statistics and restrictions on statistics.
If we compare countries we compare crime rate per X households in country A versus country B. We only need to define "crime rate". Does it include any infringment with the law, misdemeaners included? Or only serious crime?
I'm sure that the statistics that SUBMAN1 provided will have some further specifications and I would like SUBMAN1 to check them out (if that's not too much trouble for him).
CCTV is on the increase here in the UK our stupid Prime Minister wants them all over the place is it to catch criminals in the act. No their here to spy on you today Big Brother tomorrow The New World Order.
As for crime the criminals are laughing all the way when they are caught they get off with it or given such a stupid sentence why bother after all when they go to prison they have a nice holiday. Prison did I say sorry I meant Holiday Camp And as for tough on crime and the cause of crime that gives me a good laugh every time I hear that one.
And why has all this happen lets nip back to 1997 the General Election Tony Blair won and Labour became the new Government welcome to Political Correctness and the Nanny State and don’t forget Tony’s Spin machine and spin doctors
THANK YOU FOR SPENDING OUR MONEY TONY BLAIR ON SPIN A WHOPPING £500 MILLION THAT’S THE COST TO THE BRITISH TAX PAYER
SUBMAN1
02-01-06, 02:44 PM
While it is true what Skybird says - certainly about the oven and the fridge - not all is relevant. We don't have to get lost in statistic, sud-statistics and restrictions on statistics.
If we compare countries we compare crime rate per X households in country A versus country B. We only need to define "crime rate". Does it include any infringment with the law, misdemeaners included? Or only serious crime?
I'm sure that the statistics that SUBMAN1 provided will have some further specifications and I would like SUBMAN1 to check them out (if that's not too much trouble for him).
Let me see if I can find the original article. I think I found that on the US State dept website. If I remember correctly, they also stated that there are no reliable figures after the 1996 date, and I think that article was written in 2004 - so I am not feeling too confident that I can find anything later. If the US Gov can't do it - my chances are probably much bleaker!
-S
TLAM Strike
02-01-06, 02:46 PM
A few nights ago I saw a story on Dateline or 20/20 about some criminal who was pulled over by the British police. Apparently the Brit Cops didn't carry sidearms and the guy shot both of them. But the cops survived luckly. I guess the Brit Cops don't have Kevlar either? :(
The average American cop must seem like a comando compaired to one from England... :hmm:
SUBMAN1
02-01-06, 02:51 PM
A few nights ago I saw a story on Dateline or 20/20 about some criminal who was pulled over by the British police. Apparently the Brit Cops didn't carry sidearms and the guy shot both of them. But the cops survived luckly. I guess the Brit Cops don't have Kevlar either? :(
The average American cop must seem like a comando compaired to one from England... :hmm:
Nah. They do where body armor though (It is the concealed type so you wouldn't know), but the type of body armor they wear only protects from low velocity pistol fire. It won't stop a rifle cartridge.
-S
PS. For example - my 230 gr .45 Cal travels at almost 900 feet per sec. Most under clothes body armor worth it's salt will stop a FMJ version of this cartridge, albeit with a broken rib or two though. For contrast, my AR-15 fires a 5.56 mm cartridge that is much different - not only is it a steel penetrator, but it also travels in excess of 3,000 feet per sec. Not many types of body armor will stop this thing. Not really any that I can think of. The good news is, a rifle would never be used (or very rarely) in the commision of a crime, so this is not really a factor for our cops.
SUBMAN1
02-01-06, 02:52 PM
One thing that comes to mind - since the US Gov doesn't have reliable figures after 1996 - Did the UK just stop publishing those figures?
-S
How can we trust are leaders :down:
To busy cooking the books (UK saying)
SUBMAN1
02-01-06, 04:05 PM
How can we trust are leaders :down:
To busy cooking the books (UK saying)
Not sure that is the case. We publish our crime figures out here, and we have blogs in the local newspapers for what happened in your town crime wise for the week, with the number of car thefts to assaults. Do they do that in the UK?
We publish our crime figures out here
Same here but the problem is the figures are a fiddle :down:
local newspapers for what happened in your town crime wise for the week, with the number of car thefts to assaults
The more violent the crime or shocking it gets in to the local news paper as for weekly figues in your area thats a big no
Ask the Police :nope: why they are far to busy giving out speeding tickets to motorise
SUBMAN1
02-01-06, 05:14 PM
local newspapers for what happened in your town crime wise for the week, with the number of car thefts to assaults
The more violent the crime or shocking it gets in to the local news paper as for weekly figues in your area thats a big no
Ask the Police :nope: why they are far to busy giving out speeding tickets to motorise
The answer is - the motorise (Did I spell it right?) are a source of revenue that they use to operate - something should probably be done about this - ie. give the revenue to the local gov, not the PD. That would make them only give out tickets for not being safe instead of piddly stuff.
I should point out that tickets and revenue for the PD is also a problem over here.
-S
Tony Blair are dum Prime Minister getting tough on crime :down:
Speeding Tickets :nope:
Revenue raising :doh:
My idea is to make a Escape from New Yaork type thing. Take the ****tiest city in the UK. Birmingham or Milto Keynes...buils a 50 foot wall around it and dump them in there.
LMAO
milton keynes for the win! or maybe darlington... :hmm:
SUBMAN1
02-01-06, 08:06 PM
My idea is to make a Escape from New Yaork type thing. Take the ****tiest city in the UK. Birmingham or Milto Keynes...buils a 50 foot wall around it and dump them in there.
LMAO
milton keynes for the win! or maybe darlington... :hmm:
That wouldn't work - some dumb ass criminal (Or genious criminal as the case may be) will find a way to build some kind of helicopter.
But I'd vote for your idea at least - maybe but an AA battery just to cover this small airspace! :)
-S
Onkel Neal
02-01-06, 09:11 PM
The difference between Britain and the US is that 90% of our crime is committed by criminals. If we ever locked up all the criminals, we would have very little crime.
*
The difference between Britain and the US is that 90% of our crime is committed by criminals. If we ever locked up all the criminals, we would have very little crime.
*
In the UK Prison =Holiday Camp meaning prisoners have more right than the warders here's two examples from last year-
In the Scrubs(famous prison)warders can not come to close to prisoners and must address them as SIR.
A prisoner moaned about sun light was no getting in to his cell due to a windmill one of the sails blocking the light this was soon corrected.
And Prisoners are at this moment trying to over turn the ban that they can not vote while in prison.
I just hope you guys in the USA don't do this sort of thing.
Onkel Neal
02-02-06, 05:36 AM
* I was only joking :P
XabbaRus
02-02-06, 06:54 AM
Also crime runs in families. Well seems to over here with our neds.
Born wearing burberry.
So how about selective breeding?
Or we take the ned population, whole families of them.
Promise them they are getting an all expenses paid cruise to the Bahamas...stick them on the cruise ships. In the middle of the night when they are all getting rat-arsed on Bucky (a cheap alcoholic drink) in the mid atlantic,the crew disembark and our RN submarine crews get to practice shooting torps for real and checking they work.
Your one off cost is outweighted by the savings on benefits.
Deport the Chavs, to Iran perhaps. :rotfl:
Deport the Chavs, to Iran perhaps. :rotfl:
:ping: In the UK we got thousands of them yes get rid of them to Iran
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