Monday Morning Insights

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    In Australia, You’re 5x Safer in a Strip Club than a Church

    In Australia, You’re 5x Safer in a Strip Club than a Church

    In Australia, the number of crimes committed inside churches in 2008 was 1600.  In strip clubs, there were less than 300.

    On top of that, 85 people were assaulted in churches in 2008.  Only 66 assaults happened in the strip clubs.

    What do you make of that?  (I wonder what the stats look like if you did the same comparison in the US?)

    (I'd also be interested to know how many of the assaults were in church board meetings).  smile

    What do you think?

    Todd

    --here's more on the study...

    Comments

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    1. CS on Mon, April 12, 2010

      I recall hearing that only 1-2% of the population of Australia refer to themselves as being Christian, so we’re talking an extremely small number of people there, too.


      CS

    2. John Gibbs on Mon, April 12, 2010

      Yes, we Australians don’t believe in watering down the gospel, and as a consequence our sermons are often a bit more “interactive”.

    3. Malcolm on Mon, April 12, 2010

      Not as bad as you think the article states: “�Places of worship� include Christian churches, synagogues, monasteries, mosques, cathedrals, convents, and chapels.”

      It’s not just Christian churches, as an Australian I am aware that certain places of worship are a magnet for assaults, and few people would report assaults in strip clubs for obvious reasons.

      Also the word ‘chapels’ in Australia often refers to church run facilities for at risk people struggling with drug or alcohol problems.

    4. Kiefler on Tue, April 13, 2010

      The problem with this statistic is that it is not “normalized” to take into account a) the number of churches vs. the number of strip clubs, or b) the number of people who attend church vs. the number who attend strip clubs.

      For instance, assume there are 10,000 churches and 1,000 strip clubs.  That would make the odds of a crime in a church .85% (less than 1%), and the odds of a crime in a strip club 6.6%.

      Also, I’m curious if “crime in a church” includes all types of crime, including theft.  Last year someone broke into my home church and stole the computers.  That was not done *by* the people who attend the church, which is implied by the study.

    5. Kiefler on Tue, April 13, 2010

      Why yes, a closer review of the statistics includes “Motor Vehicle Theft”

      As the saying goes, there are lies, damn lies, and Statistics.

      Anything goes to deface the Church.

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