OPINION Crime data is unrealiable

[Race Jones]

theres this wide spread belief that crime has been rising in the US and the media uses places like chicago, philly, and baltimore as examples for why we need more police

but the facts are contrary to that belief (crime keeps decreasing over the past few decades). so what is feeding this perception that crime is going up?

1. mass media’s disproportionate coverage of crime and violence, especially among poor communities

Why some say the phrase 'Black on Black crime' distracts from police brutality, unfairly perpetuates racism

A 2018 national survey found offenders were the same race as the victim 70 percent of the time for Blacks and 62 percent for Whites.

www.11alive.com

When Does Murder Make The News? It Depends On The Victim’s Race.

Mainstream media is less likely to cover Black homicide victims and less likely to portray them as complex human beings, a new study shows.

www.themarshallproject.org

2. a deeply rooted belief that Black communities need to be aggressively policed.

Predictive policing algorithms are racist. They need to be dismantled.

Lack of transparency and biased training data mean these tools are not fit for purpose. If we can’t fix them, we should ditch them.

www.technologyreview.com

Does neighborhood crime matter? A multi-year survey study on perceptions of race, victimization, and public safety

Using multiple large datasets over time from Kansas City, Missouri, hypotheses drawn from theories of racial stereotype amplification, violence desens…

www.sciencedirect.com

the problem is racism and the social constructed categories like crime, law, and violence uses police to maintain and enforce structual inequalities between communities

What the data says (and doesn’t say) about crime in the United States

The two primary sources of government crime statistics both paint an incomplete picture, though efforts at improvement are underway.

www.pewresearch.org

Million Dollar Blocks | Center for Spatial Research

c4sr.columbia.edu

Crime data is manufactured and only used to achieve certain outcomes that keeps historically looted areas overpoliced and void of resources

 

[Englishdude]

Majority of data fed to you via media outlets it’s skewed to fit an agenda, it’s the easiest way to get people behind your ideas.

in this case, more funding for police.

 

[Race Jones]

Majority of data fed to you via media outlets it’s skewed to fit an agenda, it’s the easiest way to get people behind your ideas.

in this case, more funding for police.

spot on! thats why i tell ppl, if you're looking at data about crime, make sure you're paying attention to context, and think critically about what you're looking at, what is being measured, what outcome and/or “solution” is being pushed/proposed
etc

 

[16bitSheez]

I measure crime data by checking actual law enforcement reports in a given location

 

[The Lonious Monk]

It's not that the data is unreliable. It's usually the interpretation that is. You can cherry pick data to make any point you want, the average American citizen doesn't understand how statistics well enough to know when they are being mislead.

As for crime stats, the FBI numbers are usually very good. Most times they are in contrast to a lot of the bullshit talking points we get from our politicians. That said, they are just numbers. If you're trying to make conclusions about the need for policing in the community, you can't just quote some numbers and think that's it. You need to understand the trends and the complexities that surround that particular issue.

 

[Race Jones]

It's not that the data is unreliable. It's usually the interpretation that is. You can cherry pick data to make any point you want, the average American citizen doesn't understand how statistics well enough to know when they are being mislead.

As for crime stats, the FBI numbers are usually very good. Most times they are in contrast to a lot of the bullshit talking points we get from our politicians. That said, they are just numbers. If you're trying to make conclusions about the need for policing in the community, you can't just quote some numbers and think that's it. You need to understand the trends and the complexities that surround that particular issue.

i disagree !

Why you shouldn’t take any crime stats seriously

Skeptical that cops keep good stats on how many people they kill? The same problems apply even when there aren't bodies to explain away

www.vox.com

 

[Loch121]

of course.

So racists can run around saying that 12 % of the population is killing and raping everybody.

Sidenote Idk how we're still only 12/13% of the country but I will accept that there's a whole mid section of the country with less black ppl and most cities have the bulk of blacks in the city packed in, while white ppl are spread all around in multiple suburbs but more spaced out.

A fed came out and said them stats be racist a lot and you have to be very careful about what charts you use and how they come up with those numbers.

I don't think all the stats are wrong,but you gotta ask what's their system?

 

[The Lonious Monk]

i disagree !

Why you shouldn’t take any crime stats seriously

Skeptical that cops keep good stats on how many people they kill? The same problems apply even when there aren't bodies to explain away

www.vox.com

Yes, it's a fair point that cops are not always honest in how they label certain things. However, not all FBI stats rely on designations made by local cops, and that article points out that its an issue for data for which officers have a vested interest. Again, not all FBI stats are impacted by that.

All that said, it's a good rebuttal.

 

[Loch121]

And what about all the wild shit that happens when nobody ever found out about it?

I saw a nigga speed down a busy ATL downtown street chasing another car,,stop,hop out his car and randomly bust a shot off then hop in his car and drive off

it was like I was the only person who saw that shit.

I'm guessing he didn't hit anybody because I didn't hear any screams or anything and no police came around.

Who keepin stats on shit like that?

 

[Race Jones]

 

[Race Jones]

 

[Race Jones]