Self-study
While it might be expected that those neighborhoods most heavily patrolled by police have the least crime, the statistical evidence overwhelmingly supports the claim that Support such neighborhoods have the most crime. ████ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ █ █████████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that the presence of police in a neighborhood doesn’t deter crime. His support is that the areas with the most police presence also have the most crime.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author observes that high crime is correlated with high policing, and concludes that policing doesn’t reduce crime. This is flawed reasoning, because it’s quite possible that more police are assigned to areas that are already high in crime. Without the extra policing, perhaps these areas would have even higher crime rates.
1.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████
a
attempts to support ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████
The author doesn’t make an emotional appeal; he cites evidence for his case.
b
fails to consider ███ ███████████ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████████████
Even if true, this wouldn’t have a clear impact on the relationship between how heavily a neighborhood is policed and its crime rate. So this can’t be the flaw.
c
draws a general ██████████ ████ ███ █████ █ ██████ ██ ████
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of relying on an unrepresentative sample. We have no indication that the author’s sample size is insufficient, so it’s not applicable here.
d
fails to consider ███ ███████████ ████ ██████ ████████ ██ █ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ █ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ████
If this were true, it would explain why high crime areas tend to have high police presence. This indicates a flaw in the author’s reasoning, because these areas might have even higher crime without high police presence.
e
takes for granted ████ ██████ █████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████████ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ █ ████████ █████████ ██ █████
The author never suggests that he has an opinion about other ways resources could be allocated, so this can’t be the flaw.