FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
We discussed that in class (under reporting in general). The issue of under reporting crime doesnt change the overall statistics that much (when comparing crime between cities of similar rates). Most under reported crime is of low value property. And think of this; if you dont report a mugging or purse snatching, you do report your credit card's as being stolen, thus it does end up as being in one of many statistics that gets reported.
Its near impossible to not report murders and serious assaults where hospitalization is required. And for the serious crimes that are never reported, they're few enough as to not change the statistics is any meaningfull way. Plus, since most unreported crimes are in high crime rate cities, all it does it make those city rankings worse than what they are.
Again, noone is providing evidence that underreporting of crime changes the rankings. Youre making a conclusion this underreporting is selective in some cities and not others, and its high enough in the most serious catagories as to skew the results.
Bottom line there is under reporting so you cannot fully validate what you're saying - true the statistics shown paint a picture of the situation and no one is disputing the rankings per say - its just in reality, based on personal experience in some of the cites listed things are better (or worse) than actually shown in the reports and the second document I posted from the DOJ shows that....