Thursday, August 26, 2004
Girls, Drugs, and Older Men:
Drug use in girls has been linked to dating older men. Not only that, they are also more likely to drink and smoke. I really love the way statistical analysis is presented in the media. This is like saying that child sex abuse is related to birth ( in virtually 100% of child abuse cases, it has been learned, that the child was at one point born). This is not the same as saying that 100% of children born will be the victims of abuse. Would it not be more appropriate to say that some girls are more curious and confident than others. One might then go on to say that it has been found that girls who demonstrate this trait have been found to be more likely to experiment with men, drugs, drink, and smoking. So while it has been found that they are "linked", the link is in fact a very indirect one. You could also say that these tendencies also lead to a greater risk of early pregnancy. not really surprising considering it has also been found that being a girl has also been statistically linked to early pregnancy. It has been found that virtually 100% of humans experiencing early pregnancy have been found to be girls! Does this mean that every girl will experience early pregnancy? I love statistics. Presented in the right way, we can link pretty much anything to anything. Sure explains why the politicos like to throw these numbers at us so much. Without the proper explanations and background data on the statistic, the numbers presented are quite useless.
Drug use in girls has been linked to dating older men. Not only that, they are also more likely to drink and smoke. I really love the way statistical analysis is presented in the media. This is like saying that child sex abuse is related to birth ( in virtually 100% of child abuse cases, it has been learned, that the child was at one point born). This is not the same as saying that 100% of children born will be the victims of abuse. Would it not be more appropriate to say that some girls are more curious and confident than others. One might then go on to say that it has been found that girls who demonstrate this trait have been found to be more likely to experiment with men, drugs, drink, and smoking. So while it has been found that they are "linked", the link is in fact a very indirect one. You could also say that these tendencies also lead to a greater risk of early pregnancy. not really surprising considering it has also been found that being a girl has also been statistically linked to early pregnancy. It has been found that virtually 100% of humans experiencing early pregnancy have been found to be girls! Does this mean that every girl will experience early pregnancy? I love statistics. Presented in the right way, we can link pretty much anything to anything. Sure explains why the politicos like to throw these numbers at us so much. Without the proper explanations and background data on the statistic, the numbers presented are quite useless.
# posted by Wil Smith : 3:25 a.m.
