Quote:
Thirty years ago, the town of Flatsburg had one of the highest crime rates in the county. Since then, the crime rate has dropped dramatically, and Flatsburg now has one of the lowest crime rates in the county. Economists argue that this precipitous decline is the result of new factories that opened about thirty years ago in Flatsburg. These factories hired many local citizens and helped reduce the unemployment rate in Flatsburg by over 65 percent.
Which of the following, if true, provides the most support for the economists' explanation?
A) Many other towns in the county with low crime rates also have low unemployment rates.
B) The size of the police department in Flatsburg and the responsibility of its officers has remained relatively constant for the past thirty years.
C) Most of the jobs offered by the new factories pay significantly more than the minimum wage.
D) Most of the crimes committed by citizens of Flatsburg occur in the evening.
E) Over the past thirty years, the crime rate increased in most other towns in the county.
KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONIdentify the Question Type
The correct answer will "provide the most support" for the argument given, making this a Strengthen question.
Untangle the Stimulus
The economists argue that the opening of factories in Flatsburg is responsible for the decrease in crime. The evidence is that factories gave people jobs. The economists are assuming that there is a connection between reducing unemployment and reducing the crime rate, perhaps that people with jobs are less likely to commit crimes than people without jobs.
Predict the Answer
This is a causal argument, a common argument pattern on the GMAT. The economists are assuming that the factories are the cause of the decreased crime rate and not considering any other possible cause. To strengthen such an argument, either the correct answer will provide additional evidence to connect more employment to less crime, or it will show that other potential causes were not a factor.
Evaluate the Choices
(B) eliminates an alternative explanation and is correct. A greater effort on the part of the police, or a greater number of officers, could have been responsible for reducing the crime rate. By eliminating this alternative, this choice makes it more likely that the factories are indeed the cause, thus strengthening the economists' argument.
(A) may be tempting but does not help. While this suggests that there is a between employment and crime in other towns, there's no support for the idea that the lower unemployment rate is the cause of the decrease in crime. Also, there could still be towns with high crime rates that are also low in unemployment, which would make this correlation completely irrelevant. Finally, what happens in other towns may or may not be relevant to the situation in Flatsburg.
(C) is irrelevant. The economists are assuming that employment relates to crime, not that pay rates relate to crime. This choice requires the further assumption that people were committing crimes for money. If crimes were committed for nonfinancial reasons, then good salaries would have no impact on preventing crimes.
(D) is a potential 180, if one assumes that most people work during the day. If most crimes are at night, then having a job during the day would do nothing to prevent crimes when they occur most often. And even if people work at night, it's still irrelevant when the crimes happen. All that matters is why they happen (or in this case, why they stopped).
(E) is an irrelevant comparison. The crime rate of other counties has no bearing on what caused the crime rate in Flatsburg to drop. There's no indication here why the crime rate increased elsewhere, so this statement has no effect on the economists' causal argument.
TAKEAWAY: Causal arguments are common on the GMAT. A common way to strengthen them is to dismiss a potential weakener.