This is an interesting article I had to read for a Criminology class regarding the discussion of the Uniform Crime Report, and what police chiefs did in order to make their cities seem safer then they were. To do this they downgraded a lot of fleonies to misdemeanors and other crimes they simply just didnt report. Since then those official have obvioulsy been releaved of their duties and one new official told his community that when he enters office the crime rate will be a lot higher but at least it will be the correct one that they can work hard at to minimize. I guess the take home point of this type of article is to bring awarness in the dependece of statistics because they can be very misleading and in some cases just made up.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/03/us/as-crime-falls-pressure-rises-to-alter-data.html?scp=3&sq=senior police officials around the nation&st=cse
This is so disappointing. We rely on statistics for so many aspects of life and research and I hate to hear when statistics are skewed, even accidentally. But on purpose, that makes me angry. It is disconcerting to realize that people in power are often not people we would actually want in power. What would be interesting to know is whether or not the data influenced community members (i.e. people moving to that area) or actual criminal activity.