Lies, damn lies and FBI crime statistics

This Washington Post article is headlined “FBI Report: Violent Crime on the Rise.”  This TalkLeft post reacting to the Post story is headlined “Overall Crime Rate Lowest in 30 Years.”  Rather than provide my own take on this new FBI report, I would simply propose that nobody (including no politician) opine on crime and sentencing policy until having the chance to read the report.

Perhaps the more intriguing related tidbit comes from this coverage of  a pledge by Rudy Giuliani in a speech to the NRA of “No plea bargains, no exceptions, you go to jail” for violent offenders.  For an academic, it is fun to imagine a world without plea bargains for violent offenders; but, practically speaking, such a world is almost as likely as Rudy finding time to read the new 500-page Ohio Death Penalty report.