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Question

Difficulty: MediumWeaken

Sociologist: A five-year study of several midsized municipalities revealed that cities requiring secondary school students to complete mandatory community service hours reported a 25 percent lower rate of juvenile vandalism than cities without such requirements. Since engaging in volunteer work fosters empathy and civic responsibility, requiring high school students to perform community service is an effective way for municipalities to reduce juvenile property crime.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the sociologist's argument?

  1. A
    Adult property crime rates in municipalities with mandatory youth community service programs are completely unaffected by whether secondary students perform volunteer work.
  2. B
    High school students in municipalities with mandatory community service programs report spending significantly more of their free time participating in neighborhood improvement projects even after completing their required hours.
  3. The municipalities that adopted mandatory community service requirements already had significantly lower rates of juvenile vandalism before enacting those policies than the municipalities that did not.Answer
  4. D
    Mandatory community service programs require administrative municipal funding that could otherwise be allocated to local law enforcement departments.
  5. E
    Adolescents who are legally mandated to perform community service do not consistently develop feelings of civic responsibility or personal empathy.

Answer

The municipalities that adopted mandatory community service requirements already had significantly lower rates of juvenile vandalism before enacting those policies than the municipalities that did not.
The argument concludes that mandatory community service causes a reduction in juvenile vandalism based solely on a correlation between cities with service requirements and lower vandalism rates. The correct answer undermines this causal claim by showing that the lower crime rates existed prior to the enactment of the service policies, proving that the policy itself is not responsible for the lower vandalism rates.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the premises and conclusion of the argument
Premises: Cities with mandatory student community service have 25% lower juvenile vandalism rates than cities without them, and volunteer work fosters empathy and civic responsibility. Conclusion: Mandatory community service policies effectively reduce juvenile property crime.
Deconstructing the argument is necessary to identify the core reasoning chain.
2
Identify the unstated assumption and logical vulnerability
The author assumes a causal relationship from an observed correlation between mandatory service policies and lower rates of juvenile vandalism, ignoring potential confounding variables or pre-existing differences.
Weaken questions require identifying the gap between the evidence provided and the causal claim drawn.
3
Select the statement that demonstrates an alternative explanation or undermines the causal link
Showing that cities enacting mandatory service already possessed lower vandalism rates before the policy was introduced demonstrates that the policy was not the cause of the lower crime rates.
Demonstrating that the effect preceded the cause breaks the causal link between the policy and the outcome.

Key Concept

Alternative Explanations in Causal Reasoning
Estimated Time:1m 15s
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