If all you have is some generic crime data, then more crime in a region can indicate that the Mafia is strong. On the other hand, Mafias keep their own neighborhoods, and the Mafia sometimes can suppress police activity through corruption, so a very low crime rate can indicate that the Mafia is strong.
Of course, background details would suggest which of these is indicated by the evidence
Seems reasonable to me; if there’s the expected amount of crime in an area, then it’s not too worthy of special attention. If there’s a higher than usual amount of crime, then it’s clearly worthy of special attention.
However, if there’s a lower than usual amount of crime, then it’s also worthy of special attention, because that indicates that something odd is happening there (or, it indicates that something has genuinely reduced the amount of crime and not just the metric, which is worth investigating and hopefully replicating).
OK, make a lot of fun of this. Let’s take it in context. 1) It is amazing that anyone would couch their argument in a logical manner at this point in civilization at all, even if the logic is wrong, so kudos. 2) This was not a logical action (the internment). It is a complicated human action which I imagine has a lot to do with the lack of trust between the Japanese (Americans) and Americans at the time. Evidently there were no Japanese (American) or American individuals who could broker a mutual trust at this time, so sad. 3) The determinants of whatever limited trust which did exist, if known,might be available to logical analysis, but I would think they are a very complex set of statements. These statements probably reflect all the (unknown) possibilities mentioned on this thread. One logical result might have been internment. We, now, far in the future believe that internment was if not wrong, at least unnecessary. Such is hindsight
Just to complicate the story a little, the Japanese Americans in Japan weren’t interned—there were so many of them it was considered to be impractical.
If all you have is some generic crime data, then more crime in a region can indicate that the Mafia is strong. On the other hand, Mafias keep their own neighborhoods, and the Mafia sometimes can suppress police activity through corruption, so a very low crime rate can indicate that the Mafia is strong.
Of course, background details would suggest which of these is indicated by the evidence
The crime rate has gone up. This means that everything is getting worse and the police are ineffective.
The crime rate has gone up. This means that the police are getting better at catching formerly clandestine criminal behavior.
It would be possible to distinguish between those hypotheses by looking at the ratio of crimes reported to crimes successfully prosecuted.
Seems reasonable to me; if there’s the expected amount of crime in an area, then it’s not too worthy of special attention. If there’s a higher than usual amount of crime, then it’s clearly worthy of special attention.
However, if there’s a lower than usual amount of crime, then it’s also worthy of special attention, because that indicates that something odd is happening there (or, it indicates that something has genuinely reduced the amount of crime and not just the metric, which is worth investigating and hopefully replicating).
OK, make a lot of fun of this. Let’s take it in context. 1) It is amazing that anyone would couch their argument in a logical manner at this point in civilization at all, even if the logic is wrong, so kudos. 2) This was not a logical action (the internment). It is a complicated human action which I imagine has a lot to do with the lack of trust between the Japanese (Americans) and Americans at the time. Evidently there were no Japanese (American) or American individuals who could broker a mutual trust at this time, so sad. 3) The determinants of whatever limited trust which did exist, if known,might be available to logical analysis, but I would think they are a very complex set of statements. These statements probably reflect all the (unknown) possibilities mentioned on this thread. One logical result might have been internment. We, now, far in the future believe that internment was if not wrong, at least unnecessary. Such is hindsight
Just to complicate the story a little, the Japanese Americans in Japan weren’t interned—there were so many of them it was considered to be impractical.