According to a WIRED excerpt from Robert Pape's book, public arguments about whether political violence is increasing—and who is to blame—are not simply ideological clashes. Instead, the disagreement often stems from competing definitions about what incidents should be counted as political violence in the first place.
The excerpt suggests that how one defines the category shapes the conclusion. Different choices about which events qualify can lead to very different pictures of the trend, making it difficult for the public to agree on the facts.
For business readers, the takeaway is cautionary: data-driven risk assessments are only as reliable as the definitions behind them. Before relying on statistics about political violence, it is worth asking what is included and what is left out.