Crime Rates And Statistical Drivel

November’s crime figures showed London’s five month murder rate staying at about 12 a month, down from the summer but higher than this time last year (which was the record low, dipping below ten in February 2008).  However, unless there’s a sudden spike in the number during December it’s going to fall below 11 when the next results come out sometime in the next ten days or so.

The Met would also like you to know that domestic violence increased by 5%, although they’re rather reticent about what period this was over.  We’d like Boris and Kit to take a closer look at that, some of our predictions around the effect of the recession would be that street violence would decrease (fewer people out drinking) but domestic violence would increase (more people staying at home, out of work and stressed).  Boris, of course, has some way to go on developing a proper appreciation of domestic violence.

Finally, diamond geezer has an excellent piece pointing out why crime maps are all rubbish anyway.

This is freedom of information in action. This is the new auto-statistics future. This is geospatial data churned out with invalid justification. This is the government producing online maps because they can, not because they’re useful. This is tickbox social policy. This is meaningless statistical bollocks. And if there’s any crime here, it’s that anybody’s taking these maps seriously.