Q6 - Violent crime in this town

[ping_golfer_23]

Why C?

[noah]

Next time, write out what you think the argument is saying (or, if it's in the assumption family, what the core is). Often not identifying the core of an argument is what leads someone to be confused.

Here, since this is a weaken question, we're dealing with the assumption family. So, what's the core?

Conclusion: violent is become more serious.

Why? Because compared to last year, police have responded to 17% more violent crime calls.

police have responded to 17% more violent crime calls --> violent crime is become more serious

See a gap? Couldn't there be a different conclusion/explanation? Couldn't the explanation be that the cops are better equipped now? Could it be that people report more violent crimes because they have had enough of these hoodlums?

The latter idea is what (C) suggests. If it were true that more people are calling in crimes, maybe it's a smaller number of crimes as before, but since folks are calling in a lot more of them, there's more reaction.

(A) strengthens the argument.

(B) is perhaps tempting if you start to turn it into something about population growth/death, but we have no idea if there are more young/old people than before.

(D) is out of scope. Does the community center affect the seriousness of violent crime? And, more to the point, how does it affect the connection between the premise and conclusion?

(E) is about who is committing the crime. It doesn't matter if just one person commits all the violent crime, it's still violent crime. This doesn't reach the conclusion.

[u2manish]

Hi Noah,

I was wondering when you mention core of argument in an assumption question. Could you elaborate on that a bit more. I am finding hard to crack the weaken questions. Are there anyways I can jot down few assumptions or have a read about prephasing. OR IS IT JUsT PRACTISE? what good is practise if I am not able to come around to the core. any sort of help will be appreciated. where should I read more about the CORE you talk of?

Best, M

[tommywallach]

Actually, the conclusion of this argument is really the last part of the stimulus (from "showing" to the end). The first sentence is not really a conclusion, because it's too vague to be considered a real claim.

-t