Last week, the PACE project tried to demonstrate that student house parties cause alcohol-related criminal behavior. A year ago, when it was known as the RWJ project, the group said the same thing about downtown drink specials.

But PACE’s methods are flawed. And if PACE is really interested in providing a safer atmosphere for students and downtown neighborhoods, its conclusions are irresponsible — perhaps dangerously so.

PACE displays its findings using technology it calls Geographic Information Systems mapping, meaning it shows a map of downtown and overlays the sites of alcohol-related police complaints. Last year these sites clustered heavily around Lake Street and the 600 blocks of University Avenue and State Street and were more thinly scattered elsewhere around the Isthmus. Now, apparently, more than a third of the complaints appear on Langdon, in the College Park area, and at the bend of Gorham and University, where LaCiel, the Embassy and LaVille are located.

Those are the facts as PACE presents them. However, there is no graphical overlay of other possible causes of late-night criminal behavior to prove or disprove that other factors may be related. Last year, PACE did provide one other variable, overlaying sites of downtown drink specials to draw an obvious connection.

But the clusters would just as easily fit a map of bars with motorcycle parking out front, especially since drink specials offered further down State Street and around the Capitol did not come with such high incidence. The point is that PACE ignored other important factors, like the kind of crowds that populate certain bars, intent on establishing the drink-special correlation.

This year, a critical observer might also point out PACE’s high-incidence points are the places with the highest residential densities. Where are the clusters around Bassett, Mifflin and West Washington? These streets are notorious for house parties and are often the most dangerous locales, with overflowing basements and balconies in creaky, too-old shacks that Madison firefighters and EMTs say are the real threat to student revelers.

But the clusters are around huge apartment buildings, housing complexes and Greek houses, all places with lots of people living in one geographical spot. Perhaps a per capita comparison would reveal a more even distribution of incidence, but PACE does not offer it.

That’s because PACE is not really interested in finding causes or even investigating at all. PACE gets its money from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to stop underage drinking and binge-drinking, and its efforts have to link drinking with other problems so the city and university will get on board.

PACE’s demonstrations reflect the work of a researcher who finds data to fit predetermined conclusions. That’s not science, and it is not what is best for students or their neighborhoods.

By refusing to seek out factors other than alcohol, PACE is missing an opportunity to really examine late-night violence and vandalism, find the causes and prevent them. By trying to curb drinking and partying instead of fire-code violations and other hazards, PACE is not making the nightlife any safer.

So feel free to have a drink tonight, at a bar or responsible house party, and we’ll see you safely in class Monday. Cheers!