Statistics for criminology and criminal justice created by Jacinta M. Gau

Includes bibliographical references and index

Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Introduction to the Use of Statistics in Criminal Justice and Criminology -- What Do Criminal Justice and Criminology Researchers Study? -- The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) -- The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) -- Science: Basic Terms and Concepts -- Types of Scientific Research in Criminal Justice and Criminology -- Software Packages for Statistical Analysis -- Organization of the Book -- Chapter 1 Review Problems -- ch. 2 Types of Variables and Levels of Measurement -- Choosing Variables for a Study on Police Use of Conductive Energy Devices -- Units of Analysis -- Units of Analysis -- Independent and Dependent Variables -- Relationships Between Variables: A Cautionary Note -- The Problem of Omitted Variables -- Levels of Measurement -- The Categorical Level of Measurement: Nominal and Ordinal Variables -- The Police-Public Contact Survey -- The General Social Survey -- The Continuous Level of Measurement: Interval and Ratio Variables -- The Bureau of Justice Statistics -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 2 Review Problems
Ch. 3 Organizing, Displaying, and Presenting Data -- Data Distributions -- Univariate Displays: Frequencies, Proportions, and Percentages -- Univariate Displays: Rates -- Bivariate Displays: Contingency Tables -- The Census of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities -- Jail Inmates' Sexual-Assault Victimization -- Graphs and Charts -- Categorical Variables: Pie Charts -- Categorical Variables: Bar Graphs -- Continuous Variables: Histograms -- Are women's violent-crime commission rates rising? -- Continuous Variables: Frequency Polygons -- Longitudinal Variables: Line Charts -- Grouped Data -- CQ Press's State Factfinder Series -- SPSS -- Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics Survey -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 3 Review Problems -- ch. 4 Measures of Central Tendency -- The Mode -- Instant Offense and Prison Violence -- The Median -- The Mean -- Do Short-Term, High-Rate Offenders Differ From Long-Term, Low-Rate Offenders? -- Using the Mean and Median to Determine Distribution Shape -- Deviation Scores and the Mean as the Midpoint of the Magnitudes -- SPSS -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 4 Review Problems
Ch. 5 Measures of Dispersion -- The Variation Ratio -- National Census of State Court Prosecutors -- The Range -- The Variance -- The Standard Deviation -- The Standard Deviation and the Normal Curve -- Does the South Have a Culture of Honor That Increases Gun Violence? -- Why Does Punishment Often Increase[--]Rather Than Reduce[--]Criminal Offending? -- SPSS -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 5 Review Problems -- ch. 6 Probability -- Discrete Probability: The Binomial Probability Distribution -- Are Police Officers Less Likely to Arrest an Assault Suspect When the Suspect and the Alleged Victim Are Intimate Partners? -- Successes and Sample Size: N and r -- The Number of Ways r Can Occur, Given N: The Combination -- The Probability of Success and the Probability of Failure: p and q -- Putting It All Together: Using the Binomial Coefficient to Construct the Binomial Probability Distribution -- Continuous Probability: The Standard Normal Curve -- What Predicts Correctional Officers' Job Stress and Job Satisfaction? -- The z Table and Area Under the Standard Normal Curve -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 6 Review Problems
Ch. 7 Population, Sample, and Sampling Distributions -- Empirical Distributions: Population and Sample Distributions -- Theoretical Distributions: Sampling Distributions -- Sample Size and the Sampling Distribution: The z and t Distributions -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 7 Review Problems -- ch. 8 Point Estimates and Confidence Intervals -- The Level of Confidence: The Probability of Being Correct -- Confidence Intervals for Means With Large Samples -- The Census of Jail Inmates -- Is There a Relationship Between Unintended Pregnancy and Intimate Partner Violence? -- Confidence Intervals for Means With Small Samples -- The Firearm Injury Surveillance Study, 1993-2010 -- Why Do Suspects Confess to Police? -- Confidence Intervals With Proportions and Percentages -- What Factors Influence Repeat Offenders' Completion of a DUI Court Program? -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 8 Review Problems -- ch. 9 Hypothesis Testing: A Conceptual Introduction -- Sample Statistics and Population Parameters: Sampling Error or True Difference? -- Null and Alternative Hypotheses -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 9 Review Problems
Ch. 10 Hypothesis Testing With Two Categorical Variables: Chi-Square -- Do Traffic Stops Alter People's Likelihood of Calling the Police? -- Do Waived Juvenile Defendants' Race/Ethnicity Affect the Sentences These Juveniles Receive? -- Conceptual Basis of the Chi-Square Test: Statistical Dependence and Independence -- The Chi-Square Test of Independence -- Measures of Association -- SPSS -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 10 Review Problems -- ch. 11 Hypothesis Testing With Two Population Means or Proportions -- Do Multiple Homicide Offenders Specialize in Killing? -- Two-Population Tests for Differences Between Means: t Tests -- Independent-Samples t Tests -- Juvenile Defendants in Criminal Courts -- Dependent-Samples t Tests -- Do Mentally Ill Offenders' Crimes Cost More? -- Pulling Levers: Targeted Interventions to Reduce Crime -- Two-Population Tests for Differences Between Proportions -- SPSS -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 11 Review Problems -- ch. 12 Hypothesis Testing With Three or More Population Means: Analysis of Variance
ANOVA: Different Types of Variances -- Race-Based Sentencing Disparities: Do Asian Defendants Benefit From a "Model Minority" Stereotype? -- When the Null Rejected: A Measure of Association and Post Hoc Tests -- Are Juveniles Transferred to Adult Courts Seen as More Threatening? -- SPSS -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 12 Review Problems -- ch. 13 Hypothesis Testing With Two Continuous Variables: Correlation -- Part 1: Is Perceived Risk of Internet Fraud Victimization Related to Online Purchases? -- Do Good Recruits Make Good Cops? -- Beyond Statistical Significance: Sign, Magnitude, and Coefficient of Determination -- SPSS -- Part 2 -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 13 Review Problems -- ch. 14 Introduction to Regression Analysis -- One Independent Variable and One Dependent Variable: Bivariate Regression -- Inferential Regression Analysis: Testing for the Significance of b -- Beyond Statistical Significance: How Well Does the Independent Variable Perform as a Predictor of the Dependent Variable? -- Standardized Slope Coefficients: Beta Weights
The Quality of Prediction: The Coefficient of Determination -- Adding More Independent Variables: Multiple Regression -- Does Childhood Intelligence Predict the Emergence of Self-Control? -- Ordinary Least Squares Regression in SPSS -- Does Having a Close Black Friend Reduce Whites' Concerns About Crime? -- Do Multiple Homicide Offenders Specialize in Killing? -- When the Dependent Variable Is Not Continuous and Normally Distributed: Alternatives to OLS -- Is Police Academy Performance a Predictor of Effectiveness on the Job? -- Chapter Summary -- Chapter 14 Review Problems

Ideal for students who have a basic background in algebra but who have had little or no exposure to the study of statistics, this text shows readers that statistics used in criminal justice can be enlightening and eye-opening.