LSAT 4 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q9

LR Question 9 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Court records from medieval France show that in the years…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: France had more documented interpersonal violence in the years 1300-1400 than in the years 1200-1300.

REASONING: French court documents show more people arrested for “violent interpersonal crimes” in the years 1300-1400.

ANALYSIS: This sounds like a good argument. It restricts itself to documented violence.

But there are other explanations. Perhaps we haven’t found all of the documents. Perhaps some were lost. Or perhaps the definition of “violent interpersonal crime” changed.

___________

1. CORRECT. If “violent interpersonal crimes” include non-violent crimes then those crimes aren’t a good record of interpersonal violence.
2. This shows that there are even more documented cases of violence in 1300-1400. This strengthens the argument.
3. This doesn’t have any effect on documented cases of violence in either century. It is consistent with their being more fights in 1300-1400, or fewer. If some people agree not to attack each other then presumably some other people are attacking each other.
4. This supports the argument, showing that there was much violence to document.
5. This would help explain why there were a greater number of violence crimes. More people generally means a large number of crimes.

Recap: The question begins with “Court records from medieval France show that in the years”. It is a Weaken question. Learn how to master LSAT Weaken questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.