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Chronicle oversells rise in burglaries from Uniform Crime Reports

When the latest Uniform Crime Statistics came out, I mentioned that because of the poor quality of the data and the lack of contextual information, one should be wary of promoting misinterpretations of the data by singling out one area that increased and claiming it represents a crime problem. That's the approach taken in an article in the Houston Chronicle today ("Burglary increase puzzles experts," June 22):The burglary was among more than 29,000 reported in Houston in 2007 ? an 8 percent increase from the year before, based on preliminary Uniform Crime Report numbers recently released. Burglaries also went up in other major Texas cities ? by 14 percent in San Antonio, 8 percent in Austin and 4 percent in Dallas. Though such crimes rarely make the news or draw the public outrage that accompanies homicides and carjackings, they have the potential to become just as dangerous...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 22, 2008 (boomark / email).