Question

Each year of Governor Jones’ tenure, the crime rate has decreased in a linear fashion. In fact, r=-0.8 . The governor’s office concludes that the governor has been effective in reducing the crime rate. Comment.

Answer 1

We know that correlation and causation are two different things.

Given that r = -0.80

this suggests that there is a negative relationship between the two variables

This negative relationship does not suggest that the reduced number of crimes is due to governor efforts only.

There might be some other reasons which could have resulted in the reduced crime rate

So, concluding that the governor has been effective in reducing the crime rate, is not correct statement.