Bureau director Don Wedderburn said the data showed people were just as likely to be assaulted or robbed in the sanctity of a church as they were on the streets. "Most people would think of churches and synagogues as sanctuaries in society,'' he said. "But maybe that's naive, because the statistics show they are likely to rob, assault or steal from people there like anywhere else. The figures are genuinely surprising.''
A breakdown of the figures showed that 85 people were assaulted in places of worship, compared to 66 at an adult entertainment premises. According to the report, places of worship include churches, synagogues, monasteries, mosques, convents, cathedrals and chapels. Premises listed under adult entertainment included strip clubs, sex shops, brothels, massage parlours, homosexual clubs, gaming houses as well as gambling clubs.
Places of worship were also ahead on sexual offences (16), theft from motor vehicles (33), resisting arrest (seven) and liquor offences (10). Harassment and threatening behaviour at places of worship (30) was more than double that of adult entertainment (13). Two people were charged with possessing or using marijuanain places of worship.
2 comments:
Haha; I love the picture. I wonder if they're putting together some sort of "arty" Cinderella/Ugly Stepsisters routine, or if someone vandalized their sign?
The research is just the researcher's fantasy written in a statistically convincing way. From what I understood about the research, it only proves that: "NSW BCSR research finds higher number of crime reported in places it defined as 'places of worship' as compared to those it defined as 'adult entertainment'.", and NOT "Statistics prove Australians are safer in strip clubs than church". There is a big difference between the two. The following assumption were not reported:
1) Equal percentage of crimes committed in the two sets are reported to the police. I think not. Many of the crimes committed in adult entertainment centres are not reported because of fear/shame.
2) Police keeps a record of all reported crimes. Again, this may not be true.
3) All 'adult entertainment' and 'places of worship' centres have been correctly accounted for. Do you really think all 'adult entertainment' centres are registered with the government/police.
4) All 'places of worship' are representative of 'church' and all 'adult entertainment' centres are equivalent of 'strip club'.
5) NSW BCSR did not include any personal bias in collecting and reporting figures.
6) (Most importantly) Equal/similar number of people visit 'places of worship' and 'adult entertainment' centres. This is important. Let us assument that the chance of getting mugged in 'places of worship' is 1% and 60% in 'adult entertainment' centres. Clearly, 'adult entertainment' centres are more risky. But let us also assume that there were 100 million visitors to 'places of worship' and 1 million to 'adult entertainment' centres. Then total criminal cases in former will be 1 million and 600 thousand in latter. This might let you believe that 'adult entertainment' cetres are safer, while in reality they are 60 times riskier.
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