The number of automobile thefts

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct75% picked this

   Although there are fewer car thieves now than there were five years ago, the proportion of thieves who tend to abandon cars before their

   Why this is right

   Fewer car thieves helps to explain fewer car thefts. The second fact helps to explain why a higher proportion of car thieves are being caught/convicted. If, previously, car thieves abandoned a car they stole before the owner even noticed it was gone, then it's hard for the cops to catch the thief red handed. Nowadays, car thieves are still in possession of the car when the owner notices the car is missing and contacts the police. Thus, it's more likely that when the cops find the stolen car, the thief is still there.

   Skill tested: Paradox · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   75%
2. B

   Trap5% picked this

   Car alarms are more common than they were five years ago, but their propensity to be triggered in the absence of any criminal activity

   Weak Impact For 1st No Impact For 2nd More car alarms would help explain fewer car thefts, since when the alarm goes off the potential thief is likely to run away. But if thieves know that people generally ignore the car alarms, then they actually might not run away. Not only does this undercut its own ability to explain the 1st fact, it offers no reason for the 2nd fact, why a higher % of thieves get convicted.

   5%
3. C

   Opposite5% picked this

   An upsurge in home burglaries over the last five years has required police departments to divert limited resources

   This is saying that there is less police presence nowadays when it comes to car thefts (since they've been diverted to home thefts), so this would make us expect more car thefts and fewer convictions.

   5%
4. D

   Trap4% picked this

   Because of the increasingly lucrative market for stolen automobile parts, many stolen cars are quickly disassembled and the parts are sold to

   Opposite Impact For 1st No Impact For 2nd Since the stolen car market is increasingly lucrative, this offers a reason for more car thefts to be taking place. It also seems to have no bearing on the % of thieves who would get convicted.

   4%
5. E

   Opposite For 1st Weak For 2nd11% picked this

   There are more adolescent car thieves now than there were five years ago, and the sentences given to young criminals tend to be far

   If there are more younger thieves, we'd expect that to mean more car thefts, so this is opposite of what we want. This does probably help us argue, though, why there would be a higher rate of convictions. Adolescents would be more inexperienced criminals so they'd be more likely to get caught / convicted than career thieves.

   11%