Logical Reasoning

PT4 · S1 · Q9 Court records from medieval France

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Court records from medieval France show that in the years 1300 to 1400 the number of people arrested in the French realm for “violent interpersonal crimes” (not committed in wars) increased by 30 percent over the number of people arrested for such crimes in the years 1200 to 1300.

Conclusion (therefore)

If the increase was not the result of false arrests, medieval France had a higher level of documented interpersonal violence in the years 1300 to 1400 than in the years 1200 to 1300.

Evidence

Court records show that the number of people arrested for "violent interpersonal crimes" increased by 30% in 1300 to 1400 compared to 1200 to 1300.

The increase was not the result of false arrests. (With conditional conclusions, we play along with the trigger idea, like it's another premise)

Evaluate

This argument presents an increase in number of people arrested for violence in the 1300's compared to the 1200's. Usually, LSAT authors will assume that if the reporting/recording of X goes up, then the actual incidence of X has gone up (failing to consider that sometimes reporting goes up even if the underlying phenomenon hasn't changed).

However, this conclusion is only about documented violence goes up, so it doesn't seem eligible for that kind of objection.

Goal

Given that more people were arrested for violence in the 1300's, how could we say there wasn't a higher level of documented violence?

9.

Which one of the following statements, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

  1. Correct

    In the years 1300 to

    Why this is right

    This allows us a way to say that even though arrests for violent crimes went up, that doesn't mean documented violence went up, since a bunch of violent crimes were now actually describing nonviolent behavior. This would mean the increase in arrests could be due to the broader classification rather than an actual increase in documented violence.

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

    88% picked this

  2. Historical accounts by monastic chroniclers

    Opposite Impact

    This supports the author's conclusion by making it seem like the 1300's really did have more violence.

    1% picked this

  3. The number of individual agreements

    No Impact

    This uptick in "won't attack you" oaths is funny and seemingly such an oath may have contributed to less actual interpersonal violence, but we know that there were more arrests for violent crimes in the 1300s, and this doesn't give us any way to say, "True, but that doesn't mean there was more documented violence."

    3% picked this

  4. When English armies tried to

    Opposite / Unclear Impact

    If this violence is the result of war, then it's irrelevant to the sort of violence we're concerned with. If it's non-war violence, then this supports the author's conclusion by making it seem like the 1300's really did have more violence.

    2% picked this

  5. The population of medieval France

    Mixed Impact

    The first half of the 1300's has a characteristic (higher population) that would naturally lend itself to more documented violence, thereby strengthening the author's argument. Meanwhile, the second half of the 1300's has a trait (deadly plague / lower population) that would lend itself to less documented violence. This mixed bag has less damaging impact than the correct answer. Additionally, we know that arrests for violent crimes were up overall for the 1300s, so we can't really say "oh, there wasn't as much violence because of the plague." We'd have to respond to the fact that plague or no plague, the number of arrests for violent crimes are higher.

    7% picked this

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