# "Report: 51% of violent crime unreported"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-51-of-violent-crime-unreported/160325>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 10, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-51-of-violent-crime-unreported/160325 "2003-03-10T15:59:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-51-of-violent-crime-unreported/160325/1 "2003-03-10T15:59:00Z")

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Actual headline from today’s Denver Post.

What do you think? Mischeivous writer snuck one by the editors or sloppy journalism?

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**Author:** ![Mysticetes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e79b87/32.png) [@Mysticetes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mysticetes)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-51-of-violent-crime-unreported/160325/2 "2003-03-10T17:38:02Z")

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The headline makes sense to me. And you don’t. Go figure. 😕

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**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-51-of-violent-crime-unreported/160325/3 "2003-03-10T17:43:27Z")

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It’s not unusual to see claims like that. Most of us understand what the statisticians are saying.

But I always wonder… how do you know? It goes without saying that, for a variety of reasons, many women who get raped are too afraid or embarrassed to report that to the police. But if/when a criminologist gives a concrete number (say, “50% of rapes are not reported”), one has to wonder, where did he come up with that figure? How can you extrapolate?

I’m sure it’s much more than guesswork, but I’m not sure how much stock I should put in any particular number.

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**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-51-of-violent-crime-unreported/160325/4 "2003-03-10T18:24:02Z")

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My point is that if you report that something is unreported, it’s no longer unreported…or something.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/report-51-of-violent-crime-unreported/160325/5 "2003-03-11T04:34:27Z")

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I couldn’t find the Denver story, so [HERE](http://news.ozarksnow.com/news/0310-USvictimsk-37636.html) is a copy from another paper.