cogzoid
Posts: 234
Joined: Sep. 2005
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| Quote | | Perhaps they can count bodies (but given the recent scandals attached to municipal police forces across the land, fogive me for being skeptical), but whether a killing is classified as a murder, self-defense, or suicide allows for more latitude than most people realise. |
Are these scandals related to how they count bodies? I can't imagine that many suicides are wrongly attributed to being murders. Conversely, murders that are dressed up as suicides would do nothing but give the appearance of lower murder rates. This systematic error would apply to all countries, and doesn't help your argument in the least.
| Quote | | But the authors did compare similar regions in America and Canada. Canada might not be Europe, but their low homicide rates serve as a suitable proxy when direct comparisons to the Old Continent are unavailable. And look what happens when we can make a fair adjustment - America wins. Against some of the most gentle, laid-back citizens in the entire world. Doesn't this suggest anything at all? |
America didn't "win" it was comparable. And it was only the low population states of America that were compared to the low population states of Canada. Why didn't they use the data comparing the higher population states of America, with the higher population states of Canada? I've got a reason in mind. And no, the low population states of Canada are not a suitable proxy for the Old World countries. You're smarter than that.
| Quote | | Oh, I think murder rates are very relevant. But I like to look at the totality of violent crime because I also don't want to be assaulted, raped, or mugged - weird, I know. These crimes have the ability to wreck a person's life, and must be accounted for in any analysis. I also worry about the distibution of violent crime. |
And once again you missed my point entirely. I'm not saying that murders are the only crimes that matter. I'm saying that murders are the only crime statistic that is accurate. There are plenty of unreported rapes, robberies, and other crimes. There are also definitional issues. Some places lump frat guys taking advantage of a drunk girl as equal to a jogger getting dragged into the bushes in a city park. Are both equal rapes? There are alot of subjective statistics. Which is why the data from my sources and your sources often disagree. Which is also why victimization surveys are prone to error. But a murder results in a tangible dead body, or a missing person. It's easy to count those up. No one "feels" murdered. They either are or they aren't. All of those other crimes are surely important and wreck a persons life, but they simply aren't prone to accurate statistics.
| Quote | | Many of our homicides "victims" are themselves criminals, so that carries less weight than, say, a schoolteacher. Sorry, but if rival gang members like to shoot each other for trivial reasons, it's not the same as a thug preying on the civilised. In other words, if Bill Cosby ever gets murdered, I'll be depressed; Tupac, on the other hand, richly deserved what he got. And no, I don't give a toss about white, asian, or Jewish thugs either. Screw them. And the liberal hoss they ride on. |
And why wouldn't this logic apply to all countries? Don't they all have thugs? Or is your point going to be that they don't have as many as America? Boy, wouldn't that be a stupid point to make.
And don't try to pass off white thugs as being liberal.
-Dan
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