According to a new study, Las Vegas is one of the United States' most dangerous spring break destinations. Avvo.com claims that Vegas is the 3rd most dangerous spring break spot, behind only Daytona Beach and Orlando. They came to that conclusion by looking at city crime statistics which, as UNLV criminologist Dr. William Sousa points out, is a seriously flawed method.He says that the list compares a few large cities to several small towns, which according to him is like comparing apples to oranges. So basically, larger cities like Las Vegas are going to have much more overall crime simply because they have larger populations. But he also says that if the study included the large number of tourists located in Vegas at any given time, the city's crime rate would actually drop significantly.
According to Dr. Sousa:
"In order to be on the list, you have to be a tourist destination, you have to be a spring break destination. So you’re really not looking at dangerous places, you’re looking at a very short list of place that are known for spring break. That means virtually nothing when it comes to looking at how dangerous a city would be."
And according to our always quotable Mayor Oscar Goodman:
"Whoever made up that story is nutty as a fruitcake and you can quote me on that."
Other cities on the web site's list include Park City, Santa Barbara, and Kihei, Hawaii.
What's most funny about the whole thing is that Las Vegas doesn't even market itself as a spring break destination. But apparently all the crazy casino hotel pool parties shown on TV shows in recent years has significantly increased Vegas's popularity as a spring break destination!
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