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655-705 (Hard)|   Must be True|            
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srijay007
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders Updated on: 11 Dec 2025, 04:28
Originally posted by srijay007 on 15 Sep 2004, 00:20.
Last edited by Sajjad1994 on 11 Dec 2025, 04:28, edited 3 times in total.
Renamed the topic.
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D
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

Difficulty:

55% (hard)

Question Stats:

57% (01:39) correct 43% (01:48) wrong based on 1496 sessions

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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders, should not be called "lawless" That is an abuse of the meaning of words. As a suffix "less "means "without" so "lawless" means "without laws." However, a society that has no laws has no crimes, because no laws can be broken. A lawless society would, therefore, be a crimeless society. So what some have termed a lawless society should actually be called "crimeful".

If the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following must also be true?

(A) A society that has laws has crimes.
(B) A society that has no crimes has no laws.
(C) A society that has many laws has many crimes.
(D) A society that has some crimes has some laws.
(E) A society that has many crimes has many laws
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D
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hardworker_indian
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 15 Sep 2004, 07:35
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With everyone voting for A and B, I am going to be an odd man out.
I prefer D.

1. Lawless=> No laws => No crimes
2. A crime happens when a law is broken.
3. Many crimes = crimeful

No laws=>No crimes does not mean No Crimes=>No laws

(A) A society that has laws has crimes.
Not necessarilly. There may be laws, but the guys may be too good to not have any crime in that community.
(B) A society that has no crimes has no laws.
Not necessarilly. There may be laws, but the guys may be too good to not have any crime in that community.
(C) A society that has many laws has many crimes.
Many laws and good guys may make it less crimes.
(D) A society that has some crimes has some laws.
If there is a crime, there has to be some law broken. Hence there has got to some law.
(E) A society that has many crimes has many laws.
Less laws, but to many bad guys make it may crimes.
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ShashankDave
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 05 Apr 2016, 01:04
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Let L denote Law and C denote Crime, and L denote No Law and same for No Crime.

Passage says L --> C
Counterpositive of this statement is

C --> L. See Logical Connectives to understand more.
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Alex_NL
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 15 Sep 2004, 02:03
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Hmmm, I would choose B.

A, C, and D are more or less the same. With E I don't catch an good reasoning, because the sentence did not finish: A society that has many crimes has many ???

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Regards,

Alex
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 15 Sep 2004, 03:15
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If in (E) you meant to write "A society that has many crimes has many laws", then I would say the correct answer is (A). All other answers don't hold.
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 15 Sep 2004, 21:14
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D. no laws => no crimes : true
negated : (some) crimes => (some) laws : true
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders Updated on: 16 Sep 2004, 04:12
Originally posted by venksune on 16 Sep 2004, 01:30.
Last edited by venksune on 16 Sep 2004, 04:12, edited 1 time in total.
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I would go for D. More than any logic stufff, I think D is more 'indisputable' type than other choices.
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 28 May 2017, 11:00
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Answer should be D, according to me because of the Contra-positive concept under Must be true questions.
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 03 Nov 2017, 02:26
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Yes contrapositive . Answer (D)

However, a society that has no laws has no crimes,

contrapositive: some crimes -> some laws (Answer D)

Answer B is mistaken reversal (no law -> no crime) does not mean (no crime -> no law)
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 01 Sep 2018, 21:29
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders, should not be called "lawless" That is an abuse of the meaning of words. As a suffix "less "means "without" so "lawless" means "without laws." However, a society that has no laws has no crimes, because no laws can be broken. A lawless society would, therefore, be a crimeless society. So what some have termed a lawless society should actually be called "crimeful".

If the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following must also be true?

--------------------
(A) A society that has laws has crimes.
A society can have laws, but there can be no crimes at all in it. Out

(B) A society that has no crimes has no laws.
There can be no crimes at all. But in the same time it can have laws or can have not them. Out

(C) A society that has many laws has many crimes.
Absolutely wrong. Can be many crimes, van be a few crimes otr can be zero crimes. Out

(D) A society that has some crimes has some laws.
Sure

(E) A society that has many crimes has many
Such society can be witout laws at all. Out.
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 25 Jan 2020, 12:59
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Not supportive of a robot run world... but going to have to agree with the VerbalBot..(joking).. think this problem highlights a useful CR must-be-true example. The problem highlights the conditional reasoning really well.


Stimulus:
A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders, should not be called "lawless" That is an abuse of the meaning of words. As a suffix "less "means "without" so "lawless" means "without laws." However, a society that has no laws has no crimes, because no laws can be broken. A lawless society would, therefore, be a crimeless society. So what some have termed a lawless society should actually be called "crimeful".


So my conditional reasoning isn't super strong so bear with me.. what I took away from reading the stimulus is:
"IF" a society has NO laws, then it has NO crimes... (see: "However, a society that has no laws has no crimes, because no laws can be broken."
As a result the diagram I drew is:
No laws -> No Crimes; however an important distinction I made is that the negation of No laws is not ALL laws, it is SOME laws
So when reviewing the answer choices I saw that choice D is a contrapositive of the conditional reasoning highlighted in my diagram.



Question Stem:
If the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following must also be true?


Answer Choices & Reasoning:

(A) A society that has laws has crimes.
This answer choice is not a contrapositive, instead it is just wrong and invalid. It is simply a mistaken negation
(B) A society that has no crimes has no laws.
This answer choice is mistaken reversal, reversing the conditional reasoning without negating it
(C) A society that has many laws has many crimes.
Same as answer choice A, "many" is not a negation of "no laws"
(D) A society that has some crimes has some laws.
This is correct. "Some" is a negation of none or in this case "no laws"
(E) A society that has many crimes has many laws
This answer choice is a mistaken reversal with a mistaken negation so in summary an incorrect contrapositive...

Let me know if anyone disagrees or has any questions

Cheers!
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 13 Apr 2023, 21:02
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I just learned this today lol: THE CONTRAPOSITIVE of a true statement is true.

We know from the stimulus: a society that has no laws has no crimes, because no laws can be broken.

So no laws ==> no crimes is true

Therefore, if you negate and reverse the statement (contrapositive) it will be true too.

So if there are crimes ==> there are laws

Voila! Hope this helps.
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 17 Aug 2024, 05:37
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Hi GMATNinja would you like to shed views on this why A is not correct but D is correct .
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 28 Oct 2024, 06:35
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If X, Then Y
If not Y, then not X is contrapositive.

In stimulus:
No Laws -> No Crimes
We know, Some crimes -> Some Laws = Contrapositive.

(A) A society that has laws has crimes. : (Laws -> Crimes = Mistaken Negation)
(B) A society that has no crimes has no laws. (No Crimes -> No Laws = Mistaken Reversal)
(C) A society that has many laws has many crimes. (Many Laws -> Many Crimes = A variant of Mistaken Negation)
(D) A society that has some crimes has some laws. (Contrapositive of given statement in the stimulus) Correct Answer
(E) A society that has many crimes has many ( Many Crimes -> Many Laws = Mistaken Reversal and and Mistaken Negation)
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 29 Oct 2024, 06:05
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srijay007
A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders, should not be called "lawless" That is an abuse of the meaning of words. As a suffix "less "means "without" so "lawless" means "without laws." However, a society that has no laws has no crimes, because no laws can be broken. A lawless society would, therefore, be a crimeless society. So what some have termed a lawless society should actually be called "crimeful".
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Let's look at the statement in bold above.

Statement: No laws → No crimes
Negate this statement: Some crimes → some laws.

Option D is the correct answer choice.
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iustoaccusamus
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 10 Dec 2025, 21:55
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Can someone help me understand why the answer choice can not be E? Why would this be an incorrect contrapositive to "No laws --> no crimes"? Thank you.
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A society in which there are many crimes, such as thefts and murders 11 Dec 2025, 04:31
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iustoaccusamus
Can someone help me understand why the answer choice can not be E? Why would this be an incorrect contrapositive to "No laws --> no crimes"? Thank you.
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Hello iustoaccusamus

(E) is the least selected answer here, The pith of the question is "If there are crimes, there must be at least some laws that define them as crimes." We are looking for a "Must be True" not Could be true. (E) could be true but not "Must be true".

Many crimes implies at least some laws, but not necessarily “many” laws, (could be few laws covering many crimes). So not must be true.
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