Reply to the following discussion posted by a student:

When discussing the issue of Stat Wars, Best (2012) discusses how these situations happen when those who disagree with the statistics, take that effort to dispute their side.

When one party takes such an interest in a topic, information that seems believable enough to support their interest, will be accepted and worked off of.

Although, stat wars occur when another party believes in the opposite side of the argument, and also tries to come up with statistics to support their beliefs. All of this leading to debates and which argument or statistics are correct.

An example of conflicting statistics I can think of is if community policing is actually effective.

One argument for those who support community policing is that with officers working with the community, they are helping address any issues with the citizens, getting more involved especially with younger kids to possibly set good examples and work towards deterring against juvenile delinquency, and building better relationships could potentially lower crime rates.

On the other hand, others will argue that police should not be as involved with the community because this takes them off the streets more where they can be focusing on stopping criminals and making arrests to actually make their communities safer.

Both sides to this argument will come up with statistics in their areas to gain citizen feedback on both and argue their beliefs accordingly.

References:

Best, J. (2012). Damned Lies and Statistics. Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press.