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Crime Rate

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by ashg84 » Fri Oct 05, 2012 7:05 am
Newspaper Editorial

In an attempt to reduce the crime rate, the governor is getting tough on criminals an making prison conditions harsher. Part of this effort has been to deny inmates the access they formerly had to college level course. However, this actions is clearly counter to the governor's ultimate goal, since after being released from prison, inmates who had taken such courses committed far fewer crimes overall than other inmates.

Which of the following is the assumption on which argument depends
a) Not being able to take college - level course while in prison is unlikely to deter anyone from a crime that he or she might otherwise have committed
b) Former inmates are no more likely to commit crimes than are members of the general population.
c) The group of inmates who chose to take college - level courses were not already less likely than other inmates to commit crimes after being released.
d)Taking high school level courses in prison has less effect on an inmate's subsequent behavious than taking college - level courses does.
e) The governor's ultimate goal actually is to gain popularity by convincing people that something effective is being done about crime.

Please explain with your answer
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by ice_rush » Fri Oct 05, 2012 8:30 am
[spoiler](C)[/spoiler] should be correct here. If the group of inmates who took college level courses were already less likely to commit crime then the governor's argument does not hold true.
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by ashg84 » Fri Oct 05, 2012 7:06 pm
I also picked Choice C but the OA - A
Not sure how??
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by Mission2012 » Fri Oct 05, 2012 8:51 pm
What is the source of the question
If you find my post useful -> please click on "Thanks"
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by ashg84 » Sat Oct 06, 2012 12:32 am
from past GMAT question paper ..
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by anirudh.n » Sat Oct 06, 2012 2:15 am
I was also confused between A and C. But i selected A over C.

If you closely see the conclusion of he argument, it states the contrary to the governor's plan-to deny access for college education after the inmates are released.

Option C merely supports the governor's plan saying that the group of inmates who were about to take college level courses after being released were not already less likely(maybe more likely or equally likely) to commit crime than others who dint want to take the course.

But option A on the other hand says that if the governor plan is put into the program, the event of not taking a college level course is unlikely to deter anyone from committing a crime that he or she might have committed anyway.so even if the plan is put into the program, the crimes after the inmates are released will continue to occur. Hence the plan is unwarranted.

Thanks,
Ani
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by ashg84 » Sat Oct 06, 2012 6:02 am
In my view, the conclusion is that Governor action to deny college education is not correct. i.e college education will help reduce the crime rate. So using the denial test on options, i zeroed down to option C.
Option A is weaken the argument
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by akashkumar1987 » Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:51 pm
Is the answer 'A'.

Assumption is something that is not stated in the premises.

In this question we have cause and effect ... prison conditions harsher -> reduce the crime rate

A - So we will go with this.
B - We are comparing with general population.we dont have ny info about them so out of scope
C - This is already stated in last line
D - We dont know nything bout school level courses
E - Out of scope as nothing has been said like this in premises

Please let me know if my reasoning is correct or not.
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by Newbie_FastLearner » Mon Oct 08, 2012 8:33 am
Guys, check out Ian's explanation

https://www.beatthegmat.com/tough-assump ... 80-15.html


OA is C.
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