Statistical Analysis in Criminal Justice and Criminology: A User's Guide - Hardcover

Vito, Gennaro F.; Blankenship, Michael B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0130208221 ISBN 13: 9780130208224

Publisher: Pearson College Div, 2002

Synopsis

Written for users with little or no background in statistics, this introduction focuses on statistical tools typically used in the social sciences.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Statistical Analysis in Criminal Justice and Criminology is aimed at undergraduates with little or no background in the subject. It is premised on active learning utilizing common statistical tools to analyze criminal justice data. The focus is on the student's understanding of fundamental statistical analysis, and not on comprehensive coverage of statistical research.

Special features of the book include:

• examples of criminal justice research
• step-by-step guidance in using SPSS
• two data sets: a) crime data from the Uniform Crime Reports for all 50 states, coupled with other data, such as number of executions, size of the jail and prison population; and b) survey data from the National Survey on Crime and Justice.
• Companion Website, an instructor's manual, and a student study guide introduction of a new method of analysis in each chapter, along with terms, examples, and practice problems.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Statistical analysis typically is a course that students dread and are likely to avoid until late in their academic careers. Teaching statistical analysis can be a particularly frustrating experience for instructors. Students fail to see the relevance of such courses, thus creating barriers of epic proportions. How can we communicate and instruct in the proper use of the tools of the trade and show students how it leads to the "fun stuff" in research?

Having struggled with this thorny issue for some 30 combined years of experience teaching statistics classes in criminal justice programs, we embark on a new path. This text de-emphasizes the traditional method of teaching statistical analysis by hand calculation. Instead, we incorporate a way of interpreting data that introduces students to the way that we actually do research.

Our purpose is to provide a book that is written at the proper level to instruct students in the use of statistics. We have elected to avoid a comprehensive approach common to many statistics texts. Instead, we focus on statistical tools typically used in the social sciences. We believe that the focus should be on the student's understanding of fundamental statistical analysis, and not on comprehensive statistical tests that are superfluous. In essence, the text is premised on active learning utilizing common statistical tools to analyze criminal justice data.

We emphasize criminal justice examples, along with step-by-step guidance in using SPSS Studentware. We provide two data sets: (a) crime data from the Uniform Crime Reports for all 50 states, coupled with other data, such as number of executions and size of jail and prison populations and (b) survey data from the National Survey on Crime and Justice. Exercises are based on these data sets. It is our belief that the best way to learn statistical analysis is by doing it. We also provide PowerPoint presentations, on-line assistance, and other ancillary materials to help guide students as they learn a new language, a new way of thinking and problem solving, and a new way of working.

The text is based on our classroom experience. We have learned the hard way what students can handle, where they get into trouble, and what type of explanations seem to part the fog of math anxiety.

We express our gratitude to our reviewers: Tom Lucadamo at the University of Baltimore, Steve Holmes at the University of Central Florida, and Leon Pettiway of Indiana University. Their careful attention to the original manuscript led to many improvements. We also thank our editor, Kim Davies, for her patient attention to the production of this text and her ability to tolerate our eccentricities.

Please feel free to contact us directly with questions or comments about this text at: gfvito0l@gwise.louisville.edu and blankemn@etsu.edu.

Good luck with your plunge into statistical analysis!

Gennaro Vito
Michael Blankenship

About this edition

• Publisher: Pearson College Div
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0130208221
• ISBN 13: 9780130208224
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 228