Self-study
Statistical studies show that last year there was the greatest drop in the violent crime rate over the course of a year since such statistics were first gathered. ███ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ █████ ███████ █████ █████████████ ██████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why did public anxiety about violent crime greatly increase over the course of the last year when during the same time there was the greatest drop in violent crime over the course of a year since such statistics were first gathered?
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains a disconnect between the amount of violent crime that was committed last year and peoples’ knowledge or perceptions of violent crime over the course of last year.
2.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ █████████ ██████
a
Longer prison sentences ████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ █████
We aren’t worried about why violent crime dropped last year. We want to know why people became more anxious about violent crime last year while violent crime was dropping.
b
As in the █████ ████ ██████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███████ █████ ███████ █████ ███ ████ ████████████ █████████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████
The amount that the media has reported anxiety about violent crime is irrelevant. (B) doesn’t help explain why people became increasingly anxious about violent crime over the course of last year.
c
Most people can █████████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████
Knowing that people can accurately assess their likelihood of being a victim of violent crime does nothing to explain why the public’s anxiety about violent crime increased last year while violent crime was dropping.
d
People who feel ███ ████ ███████ █████ ███████ █████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███████ █████ ██████
It doesn’t matter which people tend to be the most anxious about violent crime. We want to know why people, in the aggregate, were becoming increasingly anxious about violent crime last year while the violent crime rate was dropping.
e
The proportion of ███████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ██████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ █████
This gives a possible explanation for people becoming more anxious about violent crime last year while violent crime was dropping. The increased coverage of violent crimes may have increased the public’s anxiety about violent crime even though violent crime was decreasing.