Joel Best is a professor of sociology and criminal
justice at the University of Delaware. This essay is
excerpted from _Damned Lies and Statistics:
Untangling Numbers From the Media, Politicians, and
Activists_, just published by the University of
California Press
Telling the Truth About Damned Lies and Statistics
By JOEL BEST
The dissertation prospectus began by quoting a statistic -- a "grabber" meant
to capture the reader's attention. The graduate student who wrote this
prospectus undoubtedly wanted to seem scholarly to the professors who would
read it; they would be supervising the proposed research. And what could be
more scholarly than a nice, authoritative statistic, quoted from a professional
journal in the student's field?
So the prospectus began with this (carefully footnoted) quotation: "Every year
since 1950, the number of American children gunned down has doubled." I had
been invited to serve on the student's dissertation committee. When I read the
quotation, I assumed the student had made an error in copying it. I went to the
library and looked up the article the student had cited. There, in the
journal's 1995 volume, was exactly the same sentence: "Every year since 1950,
the number of American children gunned down has doubled."
This quotation is my nomination for a dubious distinction: I think it may be
the worst -- that is, the most inaccurate -- social statistic ever.
Full text:
http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i34/34b00701.htm
--
Warren S. Sarle SAS Institute Inc. The opinions expressed here
[EMAIL PROTECTED] SAS Campus Drive are mine and not necessarily
(919) 677-8000 Cary, NC 27513, USA those of SAS Institute.
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