The "U.S. Peace Index"...

[therealUT]

...wow...what terrible survey methodology!

The Indicators
Each of the five indicators is a quantitative measure.
The five indicators are:
• Number of homicides per 100,000 people
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1991-2009
The USPI uses the same defi nition of homicide as the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, wherein homicide is defined as “murder or non-negligent manslaughter”.

• Number of violent crimes per 100,000 people
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1991-2009
The U.S. Peace Index measure uses the Bureau of Justice Statistics definition of violent crime and the associated quantitative measures. In the U.S., the measure of violent crime includes homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The USPI measure of violent crime excludes homicide from this group, as it is already included in the first indicator.

• Number of jailed population per 100,000 people
Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1991-2009
In order to allow for meaningful comparisons across states, the USPI only includes prisoners under state jurisdiction who have been sentenced to more than one year in prison. This means that both federal prisoners and prisoners in jail are excluded from this indicator.

• Number of police officers per 100,000 people
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1991-2009
This number includes both sworn officers and civilian
employees. The USPI uses the census population estimates for all states and indicators for the sake of consistency.

• Availability of small arms
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Fatal
Injury Reports, 1991-2007 Although the U.S. has excellent data for many statistics, there is no reliable data on small arms availability, small arms ownership, or small arms sales within the U.S. or within the states of the U.S. An accurate measure of gun prevalence
cannot be calculated from administrative records alone. For this reason many studies on gun prevalence use a quantitative proxy. The proxy used in the USPI is: firearm suicides as a percentage of total suicides (FS/S). As this indicator varied significantly from year to year for some states, a five year moving average was used in order to smooth out the variance. For example, the figure used for Alabama for 2008 was an average of FS/S for 2003-2007. More detail on why this proxy was chosen is supplied in Appendix B to this report.

All indicators are scored between 1 and 5, with 1 being the most peaceful possible score, and 5 being the least peaceful.

Scores are calculated to two decimal places.

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/U.S.-Peace-Index-2011-3.pdf

 

[volinbham]

Odd indicators of peace.

Likewise, odd set of predictors. I wonder why they left diversity measures out. I would pretty much guarantee that Maine or North Dakota has a more homogenous population than Tennessee or Alabama.

 

[therealUT]

Odd indicators of peace.

Likewise, odd set of predictors. I wonder why they left diversity measures out. I would pretty much guarantee that Maine or North Dakota has a more homogenous population than Tennessee or Alabama.

They also had 37 secondary indicators, of note:

Education level
Income level

I am still not sure what is "not peaceful" about not graduating from high school or college...

 

[volinbham]

They also had 37 secondary indicators, of note:

Education level
Income level

I am still not sure what is "not peaceful" about not graduating from high school or college...

I think those are predictors or correlates. Education and income are tapped as overall levels. I think diversity on those levels along with other measures of diversity would shed more light. In short, my hypothesis is that the more homogenous the population, the more peaceful it will be.

In other words, in addition to how much education being a predictor I would think that differences within the state in education obtained would have a predictive impact.

 

[therealUT]

Of course these things correlate, and to some extent may even cause, to violence; however, they should not be included in the metrics of a survey showing "peacefulness", IMO.

The survey should stick to actual violent incidences; the other indicators then could be used to explain and theorize as to why the violence occurs.

 

[milohimself]

I think this sort of thing would be a lot more useful indicator if applied to communities or districts rather than on a national level.
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[therealUT]

I think this sort of thing would be a lot more useful indicator if applied to communities or districts rather than on a national level.
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They applied it to states; then made the conclusion that the 10 most violent states in America are:

Louisiana
Tennessee
Nevada
etc., etc.

I don't feel like looking at it again, right now. However, all states, aside from Nevada, are below the Mason-Dixon Line.

I have a problem with that, seeing how PA has the highest murder rate in the nation.

 

[kptvol]

I have a problem with that, seeing how PA has the highest murder rate in the nation.

By now they've perfected the art of the minimally violent homicide.

 

[emainvol]

By now they've perfected the art of the minimally violent homicide.

Forcing people to watch Pirates games and Big Ten and Big East football is quite possibly the easiest route in attempting homicide by boredom
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[milohimself]

Forcing people to watch Pirates games and Big Ten and Big East football is quite possibly the easiest route in attempting homicide by boredom
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/thread

 

[gsvol]

 

[milohimself]

Sweet corgi.