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Old 07-21-2009, 03:30 PM   #18
jammies
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Join Date: Jan 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by octothorp View Post
Is there any reason to think that unreported crimes have gone up over the last year? There are a few categories where there is reason to suspect a high unreported crime rate (rape, domestic abuse); but is there any reason to think that 20,000 people simply chose not to report that their car had been stolen, or that 2,000 people chose to report that they had been robbed?
Well, it makes sense that unreported crime decreases when reported crime decreases, but really we don't know for sure one way or the other, so therefore we should choose the interpretation that leads to fear-mongering. Otherwise, how can we decry the moral decay of society and root out scapegoats?
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