Probably the part that bothers me is that there haven’t been any follow ups to the study; we have better tools and a better understanding of abuse and the effects.

We could do this same study way better now and at a much larger scale to ensure a better picture of the issue (smaller deviation from the norm, higher certainty in the figures). Yet, it hasn’t been done.

I’m wondering if everyone is afraid of being targeted by the police if such a study is done and potentially getting harassed for it, or if the police departments are actively refusing to participate in such a study, or if they think the number is lower, so the older study is more damning? So they don’t want to do a new one for fear that the number will go down?

I have no idea, those are just some thoughts off the top of my head.

I don’t know either way what a new version of the same study would say. Part of me wants to see it be higher to give better reasoning to restructure the police, part of me wants to believe it’s not that bad and the number is lower… But honestly, I don’t really have any horse in the race… I just want the numbers to be reflective of actual, and current facts.