So it's an indirect and imperfect measure of corruption.

Both education and leisure activities are imperfect measures of mental exercise.

The Senate will soon vote on an imperfect Democratic measure that would at least try to stop that traffic.

And even that statistic would be an imperfect measure of economic welfare.

But patent counts alone, Mr. Gates noted, are an imperfect measure of a company's innovative activity.

Its solvency is widely used as an indicator of Medicare's overall financial health, but experts agree that it is an imperfect measure.

Arrests last week fell by 65 percent, although arrests can be an imperfect measure of enforcement during a crime lull.

The scientists said their study was "more exploratory and suggestive than definitive," in part because parental smoking is an imperfect measure of environmental tobacco smoke.

As with adults, the researchers write, BMI "is an imperfect measure of body fat."

Population, many argue, is an equally imperfect measure of need, because potential threats vary greatly from one urban area to another.