Self-study
Citizen: Support Each year since 1970, a new record has been set for the number of murders committed in this city. ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██████
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Stimulus Breakdown
A citizen argues with a city official. Our goal is to counter the official's argument, and to do that we need to first fully understand both arguments being made.
The citizen concludes that the city's law enforcement is decreasingly able to prevent violent crime. How does the citizen know? Because the city has seen a greater number of murders every year since 1970. The citizen is assuming that the increase in the number of murders is caused by a decrease in law enforcement's effectiveness.
The official attempts to rebut this position by suggesting an alternative cause: the city's growing population. By pointing out this fact, which leaves the city with a lower murder rate proportional to its population, the official supports the unstated conclusion that law enforcement is no less able to prevent violent crime than in the 1970s.
Objective: Counter the City Official
To counter the official's argument, we need to support the claim that law enforcement has gotten worse at preventing violent crime, even though the murder rate per 100 people has fallen slightly. For example, we could consider other types of violent crime besides murder. If the rate of assaults is much higher than in the 1970s, then that would undermine the official.
However, it's hard to predict exactly what the correct answer will be. We should keep an open mind and carefully consider the effects of each answer choice. No matter its details, the correct answer will show us that violent crime has actually gotten worse since the 1970s.
Analysis by AlexandraNash
18.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████████████ █████████
a
The incidence of █████ ███ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ █████ █████
b
The rate of ███████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ ████████
c
Murders and other ███████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████
d
The number of ███ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ █████████ ██ █ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███████████
e
If the health ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ███ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ████