The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #125426   Message #2814970
Posted By: GUEST,mauvepink
18-Jan-10 - 11:52 AM
Thread Name: BS: Death penalty for homosexuality?
Subject: RE: BS: Death penalty for homosexuality?
I always doubt any paper where phrases like "X% of the Y surveyed report.... A, B or C" where there is no mention of whether that % or the people being interviewed are fully representaive or a good cross section of society.

For intance... "90% of lesbians surveyed had been recipients of one of more acts of verbal aggression from their partners during the year prior to the study". But if those interviewd were from a hostel to help abused women no wonder you get a figure like that. I suspect 90% of straight people suffer some verbal aggression as they go through a year, though not necessarily their partners.

Some figures are meaningless in some studies because of this oversight. "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics" comes to mind in some instances. I would also be very skeptical about some of the research cited simply because they are so dated and things have changed massively since the 80's and 90's.

Just an opinion again

mp