647843267a t1_izea5mi wrote on December 8, 2022 at 2:01 PM

Reply to comment by goj-145 in [OC] Guns in the US and Canada by pigecoin69420

Eh, you can make this same argument when comparing aby two countries. It's not specific to the US. Every country has their own definitions.

DameKumquat t1_izehwyg wrote on December 8, 2022 at 2:59 PM

Yes, which is why you need to clean up datasets until you have two comparable ones, if you want to compare countries.

One example often posted is "OMG the UK has so much knife crime! It's more dangerous than the US!" Because UK knife crime is mostly the crime of having a knife in a public place (in your pocket or in your car) without good reason.

If you count only knife injuries and murders, then the countries are pretty similar - only the US has gun injuries and deaths too.

goj-145 t1_izeas6r wrote on December 8, 2022 at 2:06 PM

It's not all definitional. It's literally refusing to report or release figures that would be included in such crime statistics. Often because the police are "overloaded" which is BS.

For example for something random that is part of a statistical issue, in the US it is common for vehicle accidents NOT to be reported in the winter because many areas have statutes where police will not come to a scene and issue a ticket or even police report if the weather is bad. More and more commonly the definition has moved to basically any day with any weather because it's more profitable to give out speeding tickets than write accident reports.

You are then supposed to call and report but it's useless as it wasn't at the time and doesn't actually count to any of the statistics involving auto accidents.

Coincidentally the rate of auto accidents in the winter in most of these areas plummeted! Look how safe!

This is ILLEGAL in most places. It is illegal in the US too, but it doesn't matter because murica.

647843267a t1_izec22p wrote on December 8, 2022 at 2:16 PM

Auto accidents and violent crime are on a completely different level. TBH I've never reported an accident to the police before, that's the first I'm hearing that it's expected. Seems like a huge waste of their time for minor accidents.

goj-145 t1_izf2i1s wrote on December 8, 2022 at 5:16 PM

Uh that's my point. So your accident doesn't count towards anything. Now look at number of traffic accidents per year statistically. None of yours have ever been counted. Of you had those accidents almost anywhere else in the world they'd be counted.

spiral8888 t1_izf14o8 wrote on December 8, 2022 at 5:08 PM

Why should police care about car accidents where nobody broke the law? Aren't insurance companies a more logical keeper of such data?

I'm sure police has better use for their time than going to accident sites when nobody broke the law. They could be needed if there is a dispute between people involved in the accident about whose fault it was in which case the police could investigate it and give their statement that the insurance companies then use as a neutral party.