Causation at its simplest definition refers to determining the cause or reason for some sort of phenomenon. However, many people hear reports on the news and the Internet that contain correlations rather than causation. A correlation is simply a recognized relationship between two things or events, but it does not imply causation. Rather, in cases of correlation one thing or event predicts another. For example, there has been a correlation found between gun ownership and homicide rates - areas in America that have high rates of gun ownership tend to have higher than average rates of homicide.