The crime rates between a large city on the eastern seaboard and a small town nestled in the Rocky Mountains present a striking numerical evaluation.
In 2006, Philadelphia recorded 406 murders within a population of 1,448,394 people. That is a rate of 2.8%.
Conversely, the city of Boulder, Colo. only experienced 1 murder in 2006 among their population of 102,659. The murder rate here ranks much higher at 9.4%.
Although Philadelphia experiences more instances of violent crime, it actually has a lower rate due to its high population.
In Boulder, despite being a relatively safe city, one crime drastically raises the crime rate.
This small case study proves that statistics can be misleading. Statistics should always be examined with prejudice and in the context of other statistics, such as population.
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Resources:
U.S. Census Bureau
City of Boulder - Police Crime Statistics
City of Philadelphia - Police Crime Statistics
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2 comments:
If you account for other instances of violent crimes, how does this change the percentages?
Interesting perspective on crime statistics.
Not to challenge your math, but are you sure you calculated those rates?
I think you got the relationships going the right way, but the numbers seem a bit off.
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