On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 9:45 AM, Scott Loveless <[email protected]> wrote:
> Back it up, Frank. > > http://www.thefreeradical.ca/Violent_crime_statistics_Canada.htm > Specifically, "Violent crime rate (per 100K) change from 1962-2006: > 221 to 951 or a 300%+ increase" > > vs. > > http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/offenses_reported/violent_crime/index.html You've shown me two completely different reports from two completely different agencies. I'm supposed to trust statistics and graphs from something called "The Free Radical"? Who are they? How accurate is their information? If you want me to compare and comment on statistics, get me stats and graphs from the same source, or at least comparable sources. You're the one who's putting the stats forward, the burden's on you. > Furthermore, the FBI is known to encourage police departments in the > US to report crime statistics based on the charges filed. So if I'm > charged with battery, that's what gets into the statistics. If I make > a deal with the prosecutor or the charges are dismissed or I'm found > not guilty, it's still in the stats as battery. I have no idea how > this works in Canada, but in GB the statistics are based on the > resolution. I'm sure you figure out where this leads. EXACTLY! You have no idea how it works in Canada. So you've admitted that your stats are incomparable, so your initial assertion is meaningless. In Canada we our calculation of "violent crime" includes assaults, including "common assault". According to Statistics Canada: "The violent crime rate declined by 2.2% in 1996, marking the fourth consecutive annual decrease. Prior to these declines, the violent crime rate increased for 15 straight years. Much of this increase is directly attributable to a large increase in the rate of common assaults (level 1), the least serious form of assault, which accounts for 6 in 10 violent crimes. Compared to 1986, the 1996 violent crime rate is 24.4% higher. If the category of assault level 1 is excluded from total violent crime, the increase drops to only 6.7%." Source: http://tinyurl.com/yk28xtp http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/af-fdr.cgi?l=eng&loc=http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/85-002-x1997008-eng.pdf&t=Canadian%20crime%20statistics,%201996 In the US, "violent crimes" includes only the more serious assaults (aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon, assault causing bodily harm) and does ~not~ include (the much more common) Assault Level I. So our stats are skewed to look higher than yours. Again, your sources have compared apples with oranges. You're the one who asserts that our violent crime rates are higher than yours, the burden is on you to provide ~meaningful~ statistics to back up your claim. I've backed up my statement by showing the fallacy in your argument. > Your mayor has been, very publicly, pointing his finger south for a > while now, blaming the US for all the guns involved in violent crime > in Toronto. The fact is, there are no facts. He's got media reports > and knee-jerking lefties to base it on and that's it. No, what you said was, "their [Canadian] government has gone back to blaming the US for their crime." We have never, to my knowledge, blamed the US for our crime. The mayor of Toronto, David Millar, has stated that most illegal guns in Toronto have been brought up from the US. Whether he's accurate or not, that's ~far different~ from your initial assertion. I have problems challenging what you say when you restate your position mid-argument. I will agree that Millar said that most (not all as you state) illegal guns used in the commission of crimes in Toronto were illegally brought across the border from the US. I don't know how he arrived at that, and neither do I care. He didn't say what you initially said. >> Have a nice day. > > Thanks! You, too. I will, and I hope you do, too! cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
