I thought this was especially fitting with the recent post about being mugged for an iPhone.
A study released this morning is suggesting a rise in violent crime that started in 2005/2006 directly corrolates to the rise in popularity of Apple's iPod music players.
Here's a link to The Washington Post article:
LINK
I'd suggest that any rise in crime* would correlate to the proliferation of small, valuable, portable electronics (Smartphones, GPS units, and PDAs of all brands -not just those branded "iPod").
*If in fact there is a rise in crime in the first place:
First, I'd argue there probably
isn't any real rise in crime. Perhaps the number of crimes
reported (because the victim loses something of value as opposed to a wallet or watch that may not be worth it to report) has increased.
Even if there is a rise in crimes of this sort, it doesn't mean it has anything to do with iPods. Always remember this when looking a studies that "suggest" something:
Correlation is not causation.
That means that 2 events that happen at the same time (correlation) are not necessarily (or, one could argue, often) a result of each other (causation).
After all, I could do a study that "suggests" a rise in crime correlates to an increased consumption of potato chips. Or that a rise in crude oil futures correlates to when I get haircuts.
Edit after reading the article:
The writer seems to cover some of my points in page 2 of that article... I must applaud that! Usually journalists run with the meaty implication of these studies, rather than look at them skeptically. By and large, this is a pretty well-balanced article.
