Crime Statistics of 5 Major Cities - Report Example

Introduction

Over the last two decades, accounts of increasing violent crimes, particularly homicides, had drastically increased in major cities across the world, with the United States significant cities leading (James, 2018). This report aid in presenting crime statistics for five major cities across the globe.

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Location

The report has selected five cities in total: New York (USA), Johannesburg (South Africa), Appleton (Wisconsin, USA), Virginia (USA), and Oklahoma (USA). The data presents 2014/2015 criminal data from different agencies complied together by the Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics - UCR Data Online.

Analysis

Below is crime statistics across major cities in the United States and Africa. According to the data, in 2014, the rate of crime across the globe was significantly high, with Johannesburg leading in the total violent crimes, 128471 cases. New York City closely followed the city with 75398 points of violent crimes and Oklahoma with 3033. Appleton and Virginia recorded the lowest number of violent crimes, with each city recording 201 and 69 cases, respectively. A similar pattern was also observed in the total number of property crime cases reported. Johannesburg recorded the highest number of property crimes in 2014, totaling 469224, followed by New York’s 339282, and Oklahoma 31596. For Appleton and Virginia, the number of Property crime cases in 2014/2015 was much lower compared to their counterparts, reporting 1242 and 67 cases, respectively.

There several factors that have influenced the high number of crime cases in Johannesburg and New York that are also relative to the low number of crime cases in Appleton and Virginia.

Population Size

Generally, it can be observed that the rate of crime increased with the increase in population. However, it cannot be fully concluded that the quality of crime increase with population size, like the case for Johannesburg. Nonetheless, there is strong statistical evidence that crime rates have a positive correlation with population size.

Economic Activities

Cities within economic zones and high levels of economic activities reported high levels of crime. In this case, Johannesburg is the capital city of South Africa, while New York is the capital city of the United. Each of these cities has enormous economic activities, and the busy environment makes it a suitable environment to commit a crime. Virginia, Oklahoma, and Appleton have relatively lower economic activities compared to New York and Johannesburg.

Size of the City

Another likely factor that has contributed to the level of crimes in the various cities in the size of the town itself. For instance, Johannesburg is 1,645 km², New York is 783.8 km², Oklahoma 1,608 km², Virginia Appleton 65.49 km², and Virginia City is 2.2 km². Although Oklahoma is more significant than New York in terms of area, the New York population size is much bigger, and this explains the difference in the number of crimes. Nonetheless, the levels of crime reduced with a decrease in the city’s area except for Oklahoma.

Discussion and Interpretation

Form the above factors crossing the five cities, some of the bias and extraneous variables observed were poverty levels, level of education, and domestic needs, which are primarily influenced by the economic power of the region. In this case, it was not entirely correct that cities with high rates of poverty or population size had a direct correlation with the rate of crime. Similarly, although the size of the city is often associated with a proportional size of the population, it was different for Oklahoma. In other words, there was confirmation bias, “A tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions, leading to statistical errors” (Allahverdyan & Galstyan, 2014). There was a confirmation bias that the poorer the area, the more like criminal activities are likely to occur since that is what I intended to believe. However, the case was not entirely accurate and thus leading not to statistical error but a misleading conclusion.

Apply

The transferability of what is learned from the known one setting to another will often pose a significant challenge to educators (Wake, 2014). In this case, therefore, it will be necessary for the students to avoid developing a bias confirmation. As Morgan (2014) argues, to understand the practices of individuals, it is essential to understand how those practices and individuals relate to the social structures within which they are situated. Students can use the above data to understand. That is, an individual’s actions make more sense when these are interpreted in light of the broader context within which the individual is situated (Morgan, 2014).

Conclusion

In conclusion, accounts of increasing violent crimes, particularly homicides, had drastically increased in major cities across the world, with the United States major cities. The report has selected five cities in total: New York (USA), Johannesburg (South Africa), Appleton (Wisconsin, USA), Virginia (USA), and Oklahoma (USA), and presented data for 2014/2015 criminal data. There was a confirmation bias that the poorer the area, the more like illegal activities are likely to occur since that is what I intended to believe; however, the case was not entirely accurate and thus leading not to statistical error but a misleading conclusion.

References

Allahverdyan, A. E., & Galstyan, A. (2014). Opinion Dynamics with Confirmation Bias. PLoS ONE, 9(7). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0099557

James, N. (2018, June). Recent Violent Crime Trends in the United States. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved from
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45236.pdf

Morgan, C. (2014). Understanding practices in mathematics education: structure and text. Educ Stud Math, 87, 129-143. doi:10.1007/s10649-013-9482-6

Wake, G. (2014). Making sense of and with mathematics: the interface between academic mathematics and mathematics in practice. Educ Stud Math, 86, 271-290. doi:10.1007/s10649-014-9540-8.