Self-study
Criminologist: According to a countrywide tabulation of all crimes reported to local police departments, the incidence of crime per 100,000 people has risen substantially over the last 20 years. ████████ █ ██████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██ █████ ████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
According to police crime rates are up in the last 20 years, but according to surveys of residents, the total number of crimes has fallen.
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains the difference between the police crime rates statistics and the survey reports of total crime. That difference must account for either a simultaneous increase in the crime rate and decrease in the number of crimes due to a reduced population; for the public simply being wrong about crime; or, for some mitigating factor around crime reporting.
19.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████████
a
Not all of ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████
This just means that at least one person surveyed wasn’t a crime victim. It explains nothing about why public reports of crime numbers differs from police crime rate statistics.
b
Most crimes committed ██ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██████ ████████████
If most crimes committed aren’t reported, then we would expect police statistics to report lower crime than the surveys. But the stimulus has the opposite discrepancy, so this doesn't explain what's going on.
c
The total annual ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ███████████
This doesn't explain why the police would report higher crime rates over the last 20 years, whereas this suggests that crime rates are down. This still doesn't resolve the discrepancy.
d
In the series ██ ███████████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████
We need to know why the surveys reported a decrease in crimes despite the police reporting increased crime rates. Whether or not the descriptions in the surveys were accurate, we still don't know why the numbers don't line up.
e
Of crimes committed ██ ███ ████████ █ ████ ███████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███████████ ██ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ████
Police report that crime rates are up because people are reporting significantly more crimes to the police. However, the total number of crimes has still fallen during that same time period. This explains why public surveys and police statistics give incongruous results.