Choose Your Own Crime Stats

This video points out some glaring discrepancies in what we are constantly hearing from the media and what the data actually says about violent crime in the US both on it's own and in comparison with the UK.



Some points of interest:

Violent crime has fallen 50% in the last 20 years

UK has 3 times more violent crime, per capita, that the US does.

The US does have a higher murder rate, but the data shows that the vast majority of these crimes happen in metropolitan areas. There are areas where there are over 250k people in an area. in the US there are 186 such areas. In the UK there are only 32 metropolitan areas.

Something tells me this information is purposefully left out.. So if taking away guns doesn't decrease violent crime and doesn't decrease murder, why do they want them so bad?

Additionally, only 3.5% of firearm related homicides were committed with rifles. Why are they going after the so called "assault rifle" when they are responsible for less crimes than handguns? Could it be that they would be more effective as a defense weapon should the civilian population need to fight off an enemy?? Food for thought.

But as Levar Burton used to say, don't take my word for it!

www.fbi.gov...

www.homeoffice.gov.uk...

Reposted

original LINKY

reply to post by 5pooky


Ah, thanks 5pooky. Not trying to blow up your spot, I did a search for the video title and couldn't find it.

Still I think ATS allows two posts on the same information - we're coming at it from a different angle and both posts are in different forums.

S&F for you too!

reply to post by TinkerHaus


Rule of thumb: The problem with statistics is you can make then say anything you want them to.

That's some pretty astonishing news I wasn't aware of though, the fact there are over 3x more violent crimes per capita in the UK (not a stat you can really skew unless accounting for illegals that don't get counted in the census).

Anywho, just goes to show than whether humans have guns or not, violent crime will continue.

BTW, here is a comparison of size between the two...

I can explain why violent crime is pretty bad in the UK and it is nothing to do with Guns. It is our liberal population who think you should hug a naughty child when they have been bad ratrher than give them a clip round the ear. It is also to do with the fact you have to repeat offend tens sometimes hundreds of times before you even get any kind of credible punishment off the police and the courts and finally it is down to the complete lack of any kind of rehabiliatation in our prisons. Our Prisons are more like criminal accademies where you pick up new illigal skills than punishment.

Oh yes there are many flaws within my nation, luckily for me though Guns is not one I generally have to worry about.

reply to post by TinkerHaus

You're bringing guns in to it, if you want to talk about guns then looking at all violent crime is misleading. You need to look at statistics of gun related crime.

reply to post by YouAreLiedTo


Size is irrelevant.

Originally posted by SpearMint
reply to post by YouAreLiedTo

 

Size is irrelevant.

Not according to... nevermind.

And no, it's really not. The news agencies LOVE to point out how many more crimes are committed in the Us than the rest of the world.

The USA is over 2 times the size of the UK.

As the OP stated, 186 metros compared to 32...

Yeah, when talking raw numbers, size matters exponentially, literally.

That is why I specifically pointed out the *per capita* stat.

Originally posted by YouAreLiedTo

Originally posted by SpearMint
reply to post by YouAreLiedTo

 

Size is irrelevant.

Not according to... nevermind.

And no, it's really not. The news agencies LOVE to point out how many more crimes are committed in the Us than the rest of the world.

The USA is over 2 times the size of the UK.

As the OP stated, 186 metros compared to 32...

Yeah, when talking raw numbers, size matters exponentially, literally.

That is why I specifically pointed out the *per capita* stat.

Are you sure you know where the UK is? Because it's actually about 38 times smaller than the US. The only way size comes in to it is the fact that the UK is much more densely packed then the US and I'm sure that's a big reason for high crime rates.

Originally posted by SpearMint

Originally posted by YouAreLiedTo

Originally posted by SpearMint
reply to post by YouAreLiedTo

 

Size is irrelevant.

Not according to... nevermind.

And no, it's really not. The news agencies LOVE to point out how many more crimes are committed in the Us than the rest of the world.

The USA is over 2 times the size of the UK.

As the OP stated, 186 metros compared to 32...

Yeah, when talking raw numbers, size matters exponentially, literally.

That is why I specifically pointed out the *per capita* stat.

Are you sure you know where the UK is? Because it's actually about 38 times smaller than the US. The only way size comes in to it is the fact that the UK is much more densely packed then the US and I'm sure that's a big reason for high crime rates.

There are 56 million people in the UK, and about 300 million in the US - Not sure where you bought your calculator, but you should have it checked out.

Obviously you didn't watch the video, you shouldn't comment if you haven't reviewed the subject matter. All due respect, but you can't just come into a thread with an agenda and make baseless comments that have no relevance to the matter at hand.

Originally posted by SpearMint
You're bringing guns in to it, if you want to talk about guns then looking at all violent crime is misleading. You need to look at statistics of gun related crime.

edit on 3-1-2013 by SpearMint because: (no reason given)

Again, you should view the video. Looking at ALL violent crime is VERY relevant, because in every nation where guns have been banned VIOLENT CRIMES RISE!

How much more relevant can it get? What you are alleging we do is exactly what we're complaining about - setting parameters so that the data is not properly represented.

Originally posted by TinkerHaus

Originally posted by SpearMint

Originally posted by YouAreLiedTo

Originally posted by SpearMint
reply to post by YouAreLiedTo

 

Size is irrelevant.

Not according to... nevermind.

And no, it's really not. The news agencies LOVE to point out how many more crimes are committed in the Us than the rest of the world.

The USA is over 2 times the size of the UK.

As the OP stated, 186 metros compared to 32...

Yeah, when talking raw numbers, size matters exponentially, literally.

That is why I specifically pointed out the *per capita* stat.

Are you sure you know where the UK is? Because it's actually about 38 times smaller than the US. The only way size comes in to it is the fact that the UK is much more densely packed then the US and I'm sure that's a big reason for high crime rates.

There are 56 million people in the UK, and about 300 million in the US - Not sure where you bought your calculator, but you should have it checked out.

Obviously you didn't watch the video, you shouldn't comment if you haven't reviewed the subject matter. All due respect, but you can't just come into a thread with an agenda and make baseless comments that have no relevance to the matter at hand.

We're talking about size. Look at a map.

Originally posted by YouAreLiedTo
reply to post by TinkerHaus

 

Rule of thumb: The problem with statistics is you can make then say anything you want them to.

Your 'Rule of Thumb' is bull flapjacks parroted by people who know nothing about statistics. I've made my living in the field for over 30yrs. You can distort, omit, impute non-existing correlations, and outright fabricate data and the like but you cannot 'make them say anything you like'. This is simply the retort of imbeciles who prefer to not deal with facts.

Not directed at you personally but I'd lose that 'truism'. It's not intellectually complementary.