Uh oh
And we'll be there in May, ladies and gentlemen!
Damned Lies and Statistics: Is the Vatican a Rogue State?"
The top crime neighborhood in the world isn't in Sao Paulo or Lagos. It's not the Bronx in New York, or even Wedding in Berlin. It's the small city ruled by Pope Benedict XVI, which apparently sees more criminal cases per capita than any other part of the world.
The Vatican's attorney general Nicola Picardi released the astounding statistic at the start of 2007: The tiny nation's justice department in 2006 had to contend with 341 civil and 486 criminal cases. In a population of 492, that measures out to 1.5 cases per person -- twenty times the corresponding rate in Italy.
By this measurement at least, crime is soaring in the Vatican in spite of a security force that would put a police state to shame. The seat of the Catholic Church has one Swiss guard for every four citizens, not to mention museum guards and police assigned to the Vatican by Italy.
posted by Craig J. at
9:38 AM
3 Comments:
From the most Dangerous City in the US (St. Louis) to there! Hee hee.
Here's a clear cut case of making statistics work for you. What about the *18 million* tourists who come through the Vatican State every year? Sure, it boasts a population of 492, but it covers a whopping 0.17 square miles! That's about 70% the size of the Mall in Washington DC. And most of it is not open to the public, making the space available to those millions roughly the size of your local IKEA store and parking lot. And of those millions upon millions who are in such close proximity every day, there are only 486 criminal cases? By my math, counting both civil and criminal cases, that's 0.000046 cases per person. Put another way, there's a 1-in-21,765 chance of being pick-pocketed. I'd say there are better odds of being assaulted in the streets of St. Louis than pick-pocketed in St. Peter's Square. "Rouge State"? Talk about "damned lies and statistics"!!
Awesome re-analysis Mike... I feel better now. :)
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