Lies, damn lies and statistics. It's a cliché, but it is certainly one that applies to the lead in a Saskatoon StarPhoenix front page story Saturday. In Jonathan Charlton's expose on North Battleford's rating on Statistics Canada's Crime Severity Index the lead on the story states, "Nearly one in three youth in North Battleford was charged with a crime last year - three times the provincial average."
At the very least such a statement is irresponsible. To take what are essentially numbers and apply them to one-third of the youth population in the Battlefords is not only absurd, it is slanderous.
Take any four young people you know and count how many of them have been charged with a crime in the last year.
It's sensationalizing at its worst and I think the StarPhoenix is more interested in tossing around numbers than it is in telling the story. Nowhere in the story is that sweeping statement explained or expanded upon. It was purely an attention grabber, giving readers the impression our community is beleaguered by bands of marauding teenagers.
I'm not going to try to twist the numbers to present my point of view. Numbers just aren't my forte, but I will put forward the notion that taking a stroll through either of the high schools in this community you would not find one in three of the students there in trouble with the law.
That particular twisting of the numbers just reduces the credibility of the index itself, as well as that of a provincial newspaper.
