Page 265 - Statistics for Dummies

Chapter 16: Polls, Polls, and More Polls
✓ Teens drink more: According to the 2009 Partnership Attitude Tracking
Study, conducted by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the
number of teens in grades 9 through 12 that use alcohol has grown by
4% (from 35% in 2008 to 39% in 2009), reversing the downward trend
experienced in the ten years prior to the survey.
Always look at how researchers define the terms they’re using to col-

lect their data. In the above example, how did they define “alcohol use”?
Does it count if the teenager tried alcohol once? Does it mean they drink 249
alcohol on a consistent basis? Results can be misleading if the range
of what or who gets counted is too wide. Find out what questions were
actually asked when the data was collected.
✓ Crimes go unreported: The U.S. Bureau of Justice Crime Victimization
Survey concludes that only 49.4% of violent crimes were reported to
police. The reasons victims gave for not reporting crimes to the police
are listed in Table 16-1.
Table 16-1 Reasons Victims Didn’t Report Violent Crimes
Reason for Not Reporting Percentage of Victims
Considered it to be a personal matter 19.2%
The offender was not successful/didn’t complete the crime 15.9%
Reported the crime to another official 14.7%
Didn’t consider the crime to be important enough 5.5%
Didn’t think police would want to be bothered 5.3%
Lack of proof 5.0%
Fear of reprisal 4.6%
Too inconvenient/time consuming to report it 3.9%
Thought police would be biased/ineffective 2.7%
Property stolen had no ID number 0.5%
Not aware that a crime occurred until later 0.4%
Other reasons 22.3%

The most frequently given reason for not reporting a violent crime to the
police was that the victim considered it to be a personal matter (19.2%). Note
that almost 12% of the reasons relate to perception of the reporting process
itself (for example, that it would take too much time or that the police would
be bothered, biased, or ineffective).

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