Pareto in the Wild: Law and Order Special Victims Unit

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The Pareto Principle is one of those almost universal truths that helps us explain the world around us. If you look carefully, you’ll see the 80/20 principle in everyday life. It’s everywhere – yes, even the TV shows we watch.

In this episode of “Pareto in the Wild”, we look at how Pareto can help us understand the outcomes in the TV show Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU). I’ve actually never seen the show, but the folks at overthinkingit have analyzed the outcomes data from the tv show, which I show below:

If you look carefully at the Law and Order outcomes data, you’ll see Pareto in action. Based on the data above, roughly 80% of the cases in Law and Order have an outcome of a “please bargain” and “guilty”. The remainder, or the trivial many are “not guilty”, “implied guilty”, “defendent killed or fled”, “guilty of lesser charge”, “no trial”, “mistrial”, “hung jury”, “charges dismissed”, and “no clear outcome”.

What is Pareto in the Wild?

In my daily living, I’ve attempted to document how and where Pareto happens to show up. Below are my posts that I’ve called “Pareto in the Wild”:

• Pareto in the Wild: Emergency Room Visits
• Pareto in the Wild: Location Based Services – the Check-in
• Pareto in the Wild: Water Usage by Country
• Pareto in the Wild: Thanksgiving Turkey Edition
• Pareto in the Wild: Cybermonday and Black Friday Edition
• Pareto in the Wild: Poopy Diaper Edition
• Pareto in the Wild: Money Spent on Hamburgers
• Pareto in the Wild: Phone Texting Usage by Age
• Pareto in the Wild: The Forbes Billionaire List
• Pareto in the Wild: Sarah Palin Edition
• Pareto in the Wild: Snoop Doggy Dogg Edition
• Pareto in the Wild: Not a Pareto, but a Flateto

Where have you seen Pareto in action in your life?

	This post was written by Pete Abilla