Crime statistics continue to confuse Chron reporters, editors

The Chronicle's Mike Glenn reports somewhat positive news on Houston's murder rate for January 1-30 in 2007 (24) compared to January 2006 (30). We're not quite sure why January of this year was cut short by one day, but we're even less sure about this characterization:

The city recorded six fewer homicides in January than during the same time last year, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said Thursday.

From Jan. 1-30, there were 24 homicides in the city, a slight decrease from the 30 slayings the city reported in January 2006, he said.

The murder rate is still too high, but we would submit that a 20% decline is more than a "slight decrease."

Percentages do seem to confound Chronicle reports and editors when it comes to crime reporting. In a January 2007 story on crime, the newspaper characterized an estimated 7.5% increase in Houston's population as "massive," yet contended that a homicide rate that increased 5.57% from 2005 to 2006 "hardly changed at all."

If Chronicle reporters and editors are so easily confused about how to interpret crime statistics, maybe a good practice would be to stop editorializing about the changes and stick to reporting the raw numbers.

BLOGVERSATION: Houstonist.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/02/07 09:29 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Sphere | Comments (0)

Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry

Trackback

Unfortunately, abusive spammers have forced us to disable incoming trackback pings. The Technorati link should list related posts. Feel free to drop us an email if you've linked a post and would like to let us know about it.

SITE MENU

+Home
+About
+Archives/Categories
+Bad Sports
+Bloggers
+Chron Headlines
+Contact Us
+Donate
+Forum
+Local Blog Talk
+PDA Friendly
+Sponsor
+Syndication

ADVERTISING