Should I make the crime rates per neighbourhood as "annual stats" or "per capita stats"?

Question

Annual Stats: Mean just the number of a specific crime, for example - if there was 2 murders in a certain neighbourhood, the stat would just say "2" for murders, and if there was 97 auto thefts, it would just say it was 97 for auto thefts.

Per Capita Stats: For the same neighbourhood, let's say the population was 8,230. The murder rate would be 24.3 per 100,000 residents and the auto theft rate would be 1178.6 per 100,000 residents.

Now I know per capita is more accurate when comparing cities, would you say it's also more accurate when comparing neighborhoods in the same city?

Anyway the reason I am asking this is I have specific crime stats for every area in the city and I'm wondering should I put them in per capita? I have in on "Excel" so it would take 10 seconds. I am going to post it online so,which would give a more accurate outlook on crime in the neighborhood?

Answer 1

Unless the readers of this report are already familiar with the relative sizes of the different neighborhoods, putting the Annual Stats would not mean too much. Say you have one neighborhood with 25 incidents and 3,000 people and another neighborhood with 30 incidents and 5,000 people, posting a 25 for the first and a 30 for the second would only tell a casual observer that the first neighborhood was apparently safer. However, the per capita rate for the first neighborhood is actually higher (833 per 100,000) than the second neighborhood (600 per 100,000).



Unless all of the neighborhoods are the same size, putting the per capita results is more useful than putting the annual stat.

Answer 2

You should be able to get that information from the local police department faster and more accurately. Why are you trying to re-invent the wheel? Call your local PD and ask for the crime statistics for a five mile radius from your address.

Answer 3

Per capita might be more valid in understanding a community's issues..