The study drew harsh criticism even before it came out. The American Society of Criminology launched a pre-emptive strike Friday, issuing a statement attacking it as "an irresponsible misuse" of crime data.
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Detroit police officials released a statement Sunday night disputing the report, saying it fails to put crime information into proper context.
"Every year this organization sends out a press release with big, bold lettering that labels a certain city as Most Dangerous, USA," Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said in the release.
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The mayor of 30th-ranked Rochester, N.Y. -- an ex-police chief himself -- said the study's authors should consider the harm that the report causes.
"What I take exception to is the use of these statistics and the damage they inflict on a number of these cities," said Mayor Robert Duffy, chairman of the Criminal and Social Justice Committee for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
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The rankings "do groundless harm to many communities," said Michael Tonry, president of the American Society of Criminology.
"They also work against a key goal of our society, which is a better understanding of crime-related issues by both scientists and the public," Tonry said.
Critics also complain that numbers don't tell the whole story because of differences among cities.
"You're not comparing apples and oranges; you're comparing watermelons and grapes," said Rob Casey, who heads the FBI section that puts out the Uniform Crime Report that provides the data for the Quitno report.
The FBI posted a statement on its Web site criticizing such use of its statistics.
"These rough rankings provide no insight into the numerous variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state, or region," the FBI said. "Consequently, they lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents."
All of the above quotations are from an AP article about the so-called 'study.' I put no stock in their findings.
Biggs wrote:All of the above quotations are from an AP article about the so-called 'study.' I put no stock in their findings.
Actually, the quotes don't challenge the data, they challenge the conclusions that may be drawn from the data.
Given that enforcement in general is lower in these cities, it is plausible that the crime data is actually under-reported compared to places with more vigorous enforcement.
Rick "who has been to all the ranked cities and finds the reported data plausible" Denney
Interesting that Pat Dailey, who is from Cleveland, wrote in his song "Body Parts": "The Lord was passing out stomachs - said he had stomachs to spare. He said, "Send the strong ones down to Detroit City - takes lots of guts to live there."
