On 4/13/2011 7:55 PM, Neeum Zawan wrote:
> Invisible<voi### [at] devnull>  writes:
>
>> On 12/04/2011 10:06 PM, Warp wrote:
>>>     Following this from abroad, I don't know if this should be amusing or
>>> frightening...
>>
>> And apparently the results are conclusive:
>>
>> http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/pdf/2005-11.pdf
>>
>> America is the most religious first-world country, and it also has the
>> highest rates of crime, poor health, etc.
>
> Highest rates of crime? Doubt it. The paper just speaks of homicide. IF
> you look at violent crime where no one dies, other industrialized
> countries are worse off, based on the statistics. I suspect some
> fiddling around with the definition of "violent" is at play, but
> still...
>
> Homicides have more to do with a certain amendment than with religious
> beliefs.
>
There is a lot of playing around with "violent" statistics. Some police 
departments have been caught, if I remember, but never properly 
sanctioned, for finding "inventive" ways of redefining things, so they 
don't seem as bad, or fall into certain negative statistics. Hell, just 
saw the blurb on the Los Vegas paper today, stating that the state might 
pass law that disposed of the requirement to do inquests, in cases of 
officer involved shootings. The cops don't seem to want it, from what 
little I glossed over, but some idiot, some place, is almost certainly 
trying to sweep something under the carpet by doing it. Why else remove 
a requirement that they investigate cause of death, and other matters, 
related to shootings involving an officer?

Mostly though, I seem to remember some irregularity between "self 
presented" testimony about certain sorts of crimes, as reported to the 
press, and those reported to state/national agencies responsible for 
tracking them, in which the self reporting was, inexplicably, more 
honest than the "official" reports. But, I suppose its possible I 
misremember (though, I doubt it).

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