Statistical Applications in Criminal Justice / Edition 1

by Gennaro G. Vito, Edward J. Latessa

Overview

This textbook is specifically designed to give criminology and law students the elements of social statistics. Using examples entirely from criminology, law and justice research, the authors begin with simple mathematical notation and manipulation and work up through: } definitions of major terms } reading of graphs, charts and tables } theoretical basis of statistics, with discussions of probability, sampling and hypothesis testing. Only when the student has a firm mastery of these basic tools do the authors present some of the basic statistical techniques most commonly used in criminal justice research such as t-tests, correlations, simple regression, ANOVA and measures of association.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803929821
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	12/01/1989
Series:	Law and Criminal Justice System Series , #10
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

	Preface	8
1.	Introduction to Statistics	9
	Review of Basic Mathematical Principles	9
	Notations of Arithmetic Operations	10
	Signed Numbers	11
	Rounding Numbers	13
	Calculating Percentage Trends	13
	The Major Purposes of Statistical Analysis	14
	Basic Definitions	14
	Levels of Measurement	15
	Summary	18
	Exercises	18
	Key Terms	20
	References	21
2.	Basic Descriptive Statistics	22
	Constructing a Frequency Distribution	22
	Descriptive Statistics	24
	Percentiles	28
	Measures of Variability	31
	Variance	31
	Standard Deviation	31
	The Normal Distribution	32
	Standard Scores (Z Scores)	34
	Summary	37
	Exercises	37
	Key Terms	39
3.	Graphic Presentation of Data	40
	Pie Chart	40
	Bar Graphs	40
	Frequency Polygon	42
	Summary	44
	Exercises	44
	Key Terms	44
	References	44
4.	Probability and Sampling	45
	Probability Theory	45
	Basic Properties of Probability	45
	Conditional Probability	48
	Permutations	49
	The Binomial Distribution	49
	Basics of Sampling	50
	Sampling Methods: A Few Brief Examples	51
	Sampling Distributions	52
	The Central Limit Theorem	54
	Establishing Confidence Limits	54
	Summary	56
	Notes	57
	Exercises	57
	Key Terms	58
5.	Hypothesis Testing	59
	Research Hypotheses	59
	Testing the Null (H[subscript 0]) Hypothesis	60
	Region of Rejection	61
	Steps of Hypothesis Testing	63
	Nonparametric versus Parametric Statistics	63
	Summary	65
	Exercises	66
	Key Terms	66
	Reference	66
6.	The t-Distribution and t Test	67
	t Test	70
	Differences Between Proportions Test	72
	Summary	75
	Exercises	75
	Key Terms	76
7.	Correlation and Simple Regression	77
	Correlation	77
	Interpreting Correlation	81
	Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient	82
	Simple Linear Regression	84
	Summary	87
	Exercises	87
	Key Terms	89
8.	Analysis of Variance: An Introduction	90
	Interpreting ANOVA	93
	Assumptions Surrounding the Use of ANOVA	93
	Exercises	94
	Key Terms	94
	References	95
9.	Chi-Square and Measures of Association	96
	Single Sample Chi-Square	96
	Chi-Square for Two Independent Samples	97
	Measures of Association for Nominal and Ordinal Data	99
	Rules for the Construction of Contingency Tables	100
	Summary	101
	Exercises	101
	Key Terms	102
Table A	Areas Under the Normal Curve	104
Table B	Distribution of t	105
Table C	Table of F	106
Table D	Critical Values for the Chi-Square Distribution	108
Table E	Table of 5% and 1% Points for r and R	109
Table F	Random Numbers	110
	Index	111
	About the Authors	113