One for @bengoldacre: Bad science, worse journalism

An influential study on child sex trafficking was based on looking at photos in personal ads and guessing which women looked underage. http://www.citypages.com/2011-03-23/news/women-s-funding-network-sex-traffick...

The best bit is when one of the researchers says that the numbers are "not a precise count" but are still "specific numbers... hard numbers" -  "you can look at them both ways."

Also, a women's group support the exposing of this junk "science" and shoddy reporting, but rightly add: "it’s frustrating that it is necessary for white male researchers to do this criticism before it is deemed valid.”

http://feministing.com/2011/03/24/research-behind-craigslist-adult-services-s...

 

Via Metafilter.