Craigslist A 'Cesspool Of Crime'? Or Are Bad Reporters A Cesspool Of Repeating Dubious Research?
from the i'll-take-the-latter,-jim dept
Slashdot points us to an article at the "International Business Times," that reports on a study from the AIM Group which claims that Craigslist is 'a cesspool of crime.' Interesting claim. What seems to be totally missing from the IBTimes report is the fact that AIM Group works for Craigslist competitors and, in this case, the "research" was funded by Craigslist wannabe-Oodle. That's not mentioned in the IBTimes report at all. In fact, the only mention of Oodle in the article is a quote by the CEO of Oodle mocking Craigslis and playing up Oodle... but never mentioning that he paid for the research in question.As for the actual "research," it seems laughable, at best, and should immediately raise questions about any AIM Group research. The "research" basically scoured news reports and found a grand total of 330 "crimes" in the past year that have some sort of loose connection to Craigslist. I have a hard time seeing how that makes it a "cesspool" of crime. That's a very small number, especially considering the hundreds of millions of posts and transactions that take place via Craigslist. This seems like a massive cheap shot by both Oodle and AIM Group, and it's sad that a reporter would repeat the claims without noting the obvious problems with it. That's not journalism. That's being a PR service.
Meanwhile, looking at the "details" from AIM Group make the results even less compelling. They play up that 12 murders had a loose connection to Craigslist, but a bunch of those appear to be from one deranged individual. It seems pretty ridiculous to blame Craigslist for that.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: classifieds, conflict of interest, crime, reporting, research, studies
Companies: aim group, craigslist, oodle
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
"Sponsored by Oodle"
That tells you all you need to know about this researcher and his report.
-->Pre-directed custom conclusions for sale.
I suppose however that its also good to know that there were 16,204 murders in the US in 2010.
Considering the millions of Craigslist transactions, and considering the fact that Craiglist has become a dominant method of selling used good throughout the US, the fact that only 12 out of the 16,204 murders were associated with Craigslist makes it very easy to draw the exact opposite conclusion from the assertion stated in this smear attempt by Oodle
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: "Sponsored by Oodle"
Here is a better source for the most up-to-date information available -- 2009, in which there were 13,636 murders in the United States
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If I was Mo Bigsley, my wang would be 18 inches and I could lean forward and turn myself into a tripod whenever I was tired.
I'm not Mo Bigsley, however, and you apparently don't steal stuff for a living. Nor do most people. Nor do most Craigslist users.
So what was the point of your comment?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Personally, I would fence things in a more traditional manner that required less of a trail.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I am not a bag-man!
Meh, disregard that. As long as you're stealing non-valuable things which are generic enough to not be particularly recognizable and do not have serial numbers I'm sure you'll do fine. Have fun.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
milwaukee band saw
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Oh and phones since *vastly* more crime is done via phone than computer.
Oh and cars.
Oh and [insert any multi-use device here]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
More crime get committed via legislation than any other method!!
That Science-Damned legislation crap oughta be outlawed!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Response to: Anonymous Coward on Feb 25th, 2011 @ 7:28am
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Response to: Anonymous Coward on Feb 25th, 2011 @ 7:28am
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Hatchet Job Listings?
Seriously, what is the difference between classified online ads and classified print ads?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Hatchet Job Listings?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Hatchet Job Listings?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Excellent response by Craiglist
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not very good..
Not even remotely close to Craigslist as far as quality of ads. CL might have it's scammers, at least they do not live in the past.
here is the link for a Digital Print Specialist,
http://jobs.oodle.com/r_srxx_/1575184195-11078u577,20/www.hrglobe.info___R406scnyCz S_3gbDS9NtteNKfjd9RtMwJoN6o38hf13mL4qTFbRgRHxrxCVGZ2VV2_9TtBFbTioiCfQqu95MGg,,
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
lets apply murder stat to facebook
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nuke the sun
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nuke the sun!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Nuke the sun!
* Looks up *
AAAAH! MY EYES!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Nuke the sun!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
PR Service
There is a book by a UK Journalist called "Flat-Earth News" which addresses this issue. The recycling of PR into newspaper copy is endemic these days as journalists churn out stories as quickly as they can. Very little gets checked and obvious things are missed in the rush.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The actual crime rate on Craigslist...
Taken from this Awl post:
http://www.theawl.com/2011/02/craig-newmark-will-murder-you-in-your-sleep-says-his-competitor
I'm sure most of us would love to live in such a "cesspool."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Statistics
In all seriousness, why is society doing this? Why cant people blame the people who did something, instead of what they used to do it?
Back in the day, if you killed someone with a hammer in a hardware store, you went to jail.
Now try killing someone in a hardware store with a hammer. The store gets sued for leaving out hammers, the manager gets sued for not preventing such an issue, the hammer company gets sued for making a deadly hammer and not including a "WARNING, BLOWS TO THE HEAD MAY CAUSE INJURY OR DEATH"
Makes no sense to me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
My two cents
Oodle's argument that they're somehow safer than Craigslist is
"When people post or respond to a listing on Marketplace, they use their real identity on Facebook".
Huh? Someone can make a fake Facebook account in less than a minute. This is a pathetic attempt to make Craigslist into the boogieman when they're just as susceptible to crime.
I'm blaming the victims... I think the problem is going to get a lot worse than it is now, and maybe police depts around the country should make an attempt to educate the public. It's really not the fault of the services that crimes are happening to these people.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: My two cents
Yes it's easy to create a fake account in FB even though that's actually a violation of FB's TOS. But it's also easy to identify a fake account in FB.
See the difference now?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
wrong Email address
Agin my request to unsubcribe "etterus@hotmail.com" from
my account is important. I listed 40 emails with CL and thier still going to "etterus@hotmail.com etterus is my name SURETTE backwards ETTERUS. Pull etterus@hotmail off my
account & change to bombey@verizon.net. Thats why no replies. going to a dead account
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
cautious
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re :
This email somebody keep emailing me and hurasting me
Please see if you can assist me with or should I have forward it to the High level
[ link to this | view in chronology ]