Elementary Statistics in Criminal Justice Research

by Fox, James Alan; Levin, Jack A.; Forde, David R.

• ISBN13: 9780205594399
• ISBN10: 0205594395
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-23
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

The best-selling book, Elementary Statistics in Social Research, 7/e, has been adapted to provide a broad and accessible introduction to statistics for criminal justice enthusiasts.This straightforward book written specifically for criminal justice helps readers who do not have a strong background in mathematics, make sense of statistics.For anyone interested in statistics related to criminal justice.

Table of Contents

All chapters end with Summary and Questions and Problems

Preface

Why the Criminal Justice Researcher Uses Statistics

The Nature of Criminal Justice Research

Major Data Sources in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Why Test Hypotheses?

The Stages of Criminal Justice Research

Using Series of Numbers to Do Criminal Justice Research

Functions of Statistics

Looking and the Larger Picture: A Student Survey

Description

Organizing the Data

Frequency Distributions of Nominal Data

Comparing Distributions

Proportions and Percentages

Rates

Simple Frequency Distributions of Ordinal and Interval Data

Grouped Frequency Distributions of Interval Data

Cumulative Distributions

Percentile Ranks

Dealing with Decimal Data

Flexible Class Intervals

Cross-Tabulations

Graphic Presentations

Measures of Central Tendency

The Mode

The Median

The Mean

Taking One Step at a Time

Comparing the Mode, Median, and Mean

Measures of Variability

The Range

The Variance and Standard Deviation

The Raw-Score Formula for Variance and Standard Deviation

The Meaning of the Standard Deviation

Obtaining the Variance and Standard Deviation from a Simple Frequency Distribution

Obtaining the Variance and Standard Deviation from a Grouped Frequency Distribution

From Description to Decision Making

Probability and the Normal Curve

Rules of Probability

Probability Distributions

The Normal Curve as a Probability Distribution

Characteristics of the Normal Curve

The Model and the Reality of the Normal Curve

The Area Under the Normal Curve

Standard Scores and the Normal Curve

Finding Probability Under the Normal Curve

Finding Scores from Probability from the Normal Curve

Samples and Populations

Sampling Methods

Sampling Error

Sampling Distribution of Means

Standard Error of the Mean

Confidence Intervals

The t Distribution

Estimating Proportions

Looking at the Larger Picture: Generalizing from Samples to Populations

Decision Making

Testing Differences between Means

The Null Hypothesis: No Difference between Means

The Research Hypothesis: A Difference between Means

Sampling Distribution of Differences between Means

Testing Hypotheses with the Distribution of Differences between Means

Levels of Significance

Standard Error of the Difference between Means

Testing the Difference between Means

Comparing the Dependent Samples

Two Sample Tests of Proportions

One-Tailed Tests

Requirements for Testing the Difference between Means

Analysis of Variance

The Logic of Analysis of Variance

The Sum of Squares

Mean Square

The F Ratio

A Multiple Comparison of Means

Requirements for Using the F Ratio

Groups Using Analysis of Variance

Nonparametric Tests of Significance

One-Way Chi-Square Test

Two-Way Chi-Square Test

The Median Test

Looking at the Larger Picture: Testing for Differences

From Decision Making to Association

Correlation

Strength of Correlation

Direction of Correlation

Curvilinear Correlation

The Correlation Coefficient

Pearson's Correlation Coefficient

The Importance of Scatter Plots

Partial Correlation

Regression Ana

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