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Old 01-20-2008, 08:40 AM   #26 (permalink)
ofogs
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gamercube View Post
I'm sorry, but I don't see the point of comparing the murder rate of ex-veterans to that of the general population.
It's quite simple, really. Veterans are a subset of the general population as a whole. To assess if something they were exposed to (in this case, war and military training) influenced their murder rates, it makes perfect sense to compare them to the group as a whole. When you do, you see that veterans are less likely to be murderers, which runs completely contrary to the fearmongering the Times was trying for.

Quote:
The murder rate prevalent among the general population is mostly due to gangs, thugs, ex-cons and the mafia.
Source?

Quote:
The murder rate of veterans is supposed to be lower.
And the data supports this. The NYT does not because it doesn't address the data. Instead, it relies on anecdotal evidence to try to paint a different picture than that of reality.
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