The rate of physical abuse in the last three months?

Answer 1

Nobody knows.

The "statistics" you read are either a compilation of data from police, hospital and "family services" agencies, or a "Sample" -- a question asked of a small group of people which is then stretched to fit the whole country.

The compilations take a long time to do, so those statistics are usually a year or more behind. Usually more.

Samples are basically good, mathematical guesses. They try to pick a "random" group, or a "representative" group, which means they try to find the same number of rich/poor/black/white/etc as in the country. In either case, if their "sample" finds "1 in 300" they'll say "about a million" in the country.

You can make a good GUESS about a period for which hard data is not available by looking at a bunch of previous data. For example, if all of the last several years have each been down 10% below the year before, it's a good guess that this year will be also -- but you must be sure to explain that this is how you got your "answer".

Statistics can be very complicated, but understanding them allows you to also understand how each "study" arrived at its data. With this understanding you'll be able to know which are likely to be right and true (or at least HONEST), and which have an agenda - something to prove - and have made their numbers fit their pre-determined idea. Unfortunately, this happens a lot.

Grandma used to say "figures don't lie, but liars can figure." Others have said "there are 3 types of lies: Lies, D**n lies, and Statistics."

I think it's important to understand the subject so you can tell which are true, which are honest (but flawed) and which are deliberate lies hidden in "figures".

Hope this helps...