On: Mathematician Says Big Data Is Causing a ‘Silent F...

[scatters]

> patrolling the street in front of an office building isn't the least bit effective against white collar crime.

Do you have any sources for this assertion? Have there been any studies?

[marcosdumay → scatters]

Do you have any counter anecdote to the assertion?

Because nobody will make a study to verify that the sky is blue if there isn't at a minimum some dissenting opinion.

[scatters → marcosdumay]

If increased police presence works to deter violent crime, why wouldn't it work to deter white-collar crime likewise?

[PeterisP → scatters]

Because it's not really detectable by patrolling without in-depth investigation. A patrol cop staring at e.g. a stockbroker doing insider trading would not deter it because that wouldn't be visible even as he would be doing the trades. A patrol cop sitting in all Madoff's meetings and sales presentations wouldn't prevent the Madoff scam from succeeding. There's nothing to suggest even getting a warrant without analysis of the actual trade data/accounting information/etc, which cannot really be done by most nonspecialized police officers.

[Chris2048 → scatters]

It doesn't deter violent crime, it deters street crime, some of which is violent.

How much white-collar crime occurs on the street? Even violent crime off the street won't be helped much by street patrols.