Via Kevin comes this blog post from Extrano about how Britain’s Home Office determines its “official” murder rate.

Why? It is a matter of policy. As Chief Inspector Colin Greenwood points out here, the Home Office believes it unfair to brand a man a murderer until he has been tried, convicted, and exhausted his appeals.

As a result, murders that have not been solved are not included. If indications in the Telegraph are correct, that would substantially reduce the homicide rate in itself. Murders that have resulted in an arrest but no conviction are not counted. Convictions that have not been appealed are apparently not counted. And the number of minorities reported as murder victims is far below either the demographics or of reason.

RTWT, including the links.

This calls into question the assertions that gun control works because of the much lower murder rate reported in Britain. I would like to see if Australia and Canada follow similar methodologies (being part of the Commonwealth).

As the saying goes, “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.”