Looking at two pdfs of crime & punishment,
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv17.pdf and
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/tssp16.pdf, the number of footnotes is often longer than the chart.
Getting a grasp of the results is hard, and it’s easy to see how politicians and pundits can twist the numbers for their own purposes.
Like getting rained on while standing in sunshine, it depends on the slant.
It doesn't get better with smaller charts...
I don't know if it's statisticians, politicians dictating reporting rules, or just how complicated the subject is.
