3 ms·

Not only haven't they "caught up" but the 24-hour news cycle seems to have made many people (perhaps most people) in the US believe that the crime rates have go

Not only haven't they "caught up" but the 24-hour news cycle seems to have made many people (perhaps most people) in the US believe that the crime rates have gone up significantly. I've quit trying to correct people about this (because it is apparently fruitless) on places like Facebook where friends and family will make off-handed claims about how bad the crime is these days compared to "the good old days" (where the "good old days" is circa the late 70s to the early 90s relative to these people's ages). All of your fancy data is no match for people's emotional response perceptions.

rodgerd 12y ago
> Not only haven't they "caught up" but the 24-hour news cycle seems to have made many people (perhaps most people) in the US believe that the crime rates have gone up significantly. There's far too much money to be made and too much gain for some political parties to do anything other than pretend it's the end days of the crimpocalypse.
baddox 12y ago
I'd like to see it compared with news viewership/readership from various sources. Do people who watch TV news overestimate crime more than those who read news online? How does education about current events affect the estimates? Though I have no data, I'm skeptical that the 24-hour news cycle is the primary factor. I would guess that people always tend to overestimate the crime rate, as a far fundamental bias, similar to how then-modern technology is always ruining society [0], or "kids these days" are always the worst generation ever to grace the planet. The article doesn't say whether people have gotten less accurate over time with their crime rate estimates. [0] http://xkcd.com/1227/ http://xkcd.com/1227/
tedunangst 12y ago
An observation hardly unique to crime stats. The 24 hour internet is happy to convince you that the police have never been more brutal, your food has never been more poisoned, etc.

rodgerd 12y ago

> Not only haven't they "caught up" but the 24-hour news cycle seems to have made many people (perhaps most people) in the US believe that the crime rates have gone up significantly. There's far too much money to be made and too much gain for some political parties to do anything other than pretend it's the end days of the crimpocalypse.

baddox 12y ago

I'd like to see it compared with news viewership/readership from various sources. Do people who watch TV news overestimate crime more than those who read news online? How does education about current events affect the estimates? Though I have no data, I'm skeptical that the 24-hour news cycle is the primary factor. I would guess that people always tend to overestimate the crime rate, as a far fundamental bias, similar to how then-modern technology is always ruining society [0], or "kids these days" are always the worst generation ever to grace the planet. The article doesn't say whether people have gotten less accurate over time with their crime rate estimates. [0] http://xkcd.com/1227/ http://xkcd.com/1227/

tedunangst 12y ago

An observation hardly unique to crime stats. The 24 hour internet is happy to convince you that the police have never been more brutal, your food has never been more poisoned, etc.