Mangling Crime Statistics

Fox News has a good article about recent claims that violent crime/violent crime rates have surged recently. Even if you are not interested in such things as crime and crime rates, read the article. It is a good example of how you have to be careful with statistics - both when using them yourself and when accepting or rejecting arguments made by others based on statistics.

It vaguely reminds me of one of my first posts here, "How Bad is the Federal Deficit Really?", in which I went to great lengths to explain how "it's a matter of accounting."