Editorial: A recent survey shows that 77 percent of people feel that crime is increasing and that 87 percent feel th...

shunhe on June 26, 2020

Hi @bcross,

Thanks for the question! So for a brief recap, the editorial is talking about a survey in which 77% of people think crime is increasing, and 87% think that we should have tougher sentences. We then conclude that the government has to address the rising crime rate.

Now we’re asked to find a flaw in the argument. And (A) tells us that the survey results are inconsistent, since they suggest that more people are concerned about the sentencing of criminals than are concerned about crime itself. And that might be what the survey results indicate. But is that inconsistent? Is it contradictory in some way for people to care more about sentencing than crime itself? No, not at all! There’s no reason to think that these numbers should be the same, or in the opposite order. And because of that

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.