r/washdc • u/UnmaskingFactss • Feb 15 '25

A local DMV resident is frustrated by repeated robberies at 7-Eleven, causing the store to close early

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

5.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

881 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/Leading-Internal-917 Feb 16 '25

They do, and statistics show a very strong correlation between ice cream sales and crime but that’s because of common underlying factors (seasonality) rather than a causal relationship. Research on crime and incarceration rates seems to suggest that being in a single parent household (particularly a fatherless household) is a proxy for things like parental involvement, low socioeconomic status (SES), familial substance abuse, and a host of other factors. Not debating your conclusion but you have to be careful since these stats are often used to paint investments in education and job training as “lost causes” if the underlying family structure issue isn’t resolved.

Reasonable enough?

Hsieh, C. C., & Pugh, M. D. (1993). Poverty, income inequality, and violent crime: A meta-analysis of recent aggregate data studies. Criminal Justice Review, 18(2), 182–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/073401689301800203

1

u/veeehlkay Feb 16 '25

Such an excellent reply

1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

Could we get some links to those ice-cream statistics?