25 September 2017

Reinventing The Wheel

A study analyzing crime data in Philadelphia for 10 years found that rates of violent crime and disorderly conduct are higher when the weather is warmer and more pleasant, even rising sharply during warmer-than-typical winter days.
From here.

This finding would be much more impressive if it weren't for the fact that this conclusion was considered to be established enough to put in the Social Psychology textbook that one of my parents used in college, sometime at least 50 years ago. It is nice that the finding replicates, but the press release breathlessly reports it as if it is something new under the sun. The paper is:

Leah H. Schinasi, Ghassan B. Hamra. "A Time Series Analysis of Associations between Daily Temperature and Crime Events in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania." Journal of Urban Health (2017); DOI: 10.1007/s11524-017-0181-y

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