With two BCS national football titles in three years, it's unsurprising that Gainesville's greatest sin is pride. But according to a research group, the sin means the college town exhibits diverse debaucheries.
Geographers from Kansas State University mapped the seven biblical sins county-by-county across the U.S., revealing that Alachua is one of the most prideful counties in Florida.
Pride, the deadliest sin according to some, is mapped by combining the data from Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth and Greed, each of which is determined by a separate statistic, or group of statistics. Researchers split each sin into five levels of intensity, and when mapped, the darkest is the most sinful, said Mitchel Stimers, co-author of the project.
In Alachua, Lust registered at the highest level of sinfulness, Envy, Wrath and Sloth reached the second highest, Greed placed in the middle level and Gluttony finished at the second lowest level.
Consistently high rates of sin pushed Alachua into the top 14 most prideful counties in Florida, even though it only ranked at the highest level in one of the six substantiating sins, Stimers said.
Jacob Larson, associate pastor at Vineyard Church of Gainesville, was surprised when he found out Alachua was high up on the scale of pride.
"I guess we have the Gator Nation here," Larson said. "And we're very proud to be Gators."
However, it's worth having the pride that develops a sense of individualism and pushes people to give back to humanity, he said.
"It's giving credit where credit is due," Larson said.
The dangerous part is when pride starts to dehumanize, he said.
"If you choose to love yourself more than anyone else you…. commit atrocities to another person because you love yourself that much," he said. "The self-love begins to kill you eventually."
Envy was tied to the number of thefts per capita.
Although the crime rate decreased in Alachua by 3.3 percent from 2007 to 2008, larceny has seen a slight increase in the same period, according to Art Forgey, public information officer for Alachua County Sheriff's Office.
Some of the crime statistics can be blamed on the worsened economy because people often become desperate under financial stress, he said Alachua's large student population might also explain some larceny cases, he said.
The start of the school year shows a noticeable increase in robberies. Scooters, cars and other personal belongings are often stolen from students.
"Many students tend to leave their cars and apartments unlocked," he said. "For most of them it's their first time on their own."
Wrath was plotted by the number of violent crimes per capita.
Cities tend to have higher crime rates. But demographics and population size are very important when comparing data among counties, according to Steve Maynard, Alachua County Sheriff's Office spokesman.
"It's a very tough question," he said. "In comparison with huge counties like Broward our crime rate is probably relatively low."
He doesn't believe UF contributes to the number of violent crimes. Common crimes, such as bike theft and underage alcohol consumption, are more prevalent among students, he said.
The number of violent offenses in Alachua, which include rape, assault, threats and stalking, increased by 6.2 percent between 2007 and 2008, according to the Uniform Crime Report Domestic Violence Data for Alachua County. Stalking and threats made a large part of the increase.
For Lust, researchers used the number of sexually transmitted diseases per capita. One reason for Alachua's high rate of STDs could be the younger population, according to George Gibbs, regional program manager for the Alachua County Health Department.
The most common sexually transmitted diseases in Alachua are gonorrhea and Chlamydia, which are largely carried by people between 15 and 24 year old.
Gluttony was determined by fast food restaurants per capita. Alachua's low score on the Gluttony scale could be because Gainesville is one of the 25 most educated cities in U.S., according to Roland Loog, director of Visit Gainesville, which provides visitor information. Knowledge generally leads to higher income, and Loog believes educated populations shop for healthier food, he said.
Greed was measured by comparing the ratio between average income per capita and the number of individuals below poverty line. A higher ratio meant there is greater separation between social classes.
Stimers has received some criticism over his team's choice of statistics, particularly those tied to Gluttony and Sloth.
Originally, as shown in the maps, Sloth was determined by a comparison of money spent on arts, entertainment and recreation against unemployment rates.
Under pressure to have the presentation ready for a geographers' conference in mid-March, the research team had to choose data that not only represented the sin but also was available for analysis, Stimers said.
"You can think of an idea theoretically, but then you have to get the scientific data for it," he said. "It's art as much as science."
Stimers said the data is in the process of re-evaluation with a focus on Gluttony and Sloth because their distributions didn't show a clear pattern on the maps. Gluttony will be re-plotted with child obesity rates and Sloth will be updated with more detailed information on expenditures from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 Economic Census.
