Statistics for Criminology and Criminal Justice

The topics and presentation style of Statistics for Criminology and Criminal Justice are targeted to students who have a basic background in algebra but who have little or no exposure to the study of statistics. The content is presented in a sequential fashion. It begins with descriptive statistics, moves into probability and distributions, and ends with bivariate hypothesis testing and an introduction to regression. Emphasis is placed on balancing thoroughness with ease of understanding and applications in order to show students the importance of statistics in the practice and study of criminal justice and criminology.

KEY FEATURES

The underlying theory and logical underpinning that drive statistical analyses are presented for students to understand the math. Without the theory of probability, the logic of hypothesis testing, and the understanding of their practical application, students will resort to trying to memorize rather than trying to truly understand.
All in-text examples and end-of-chapter exercises use real data to show how statistics are used in everyday life and in a criminal justice/criminology related career.
Research Example boxes appear throughout the chapters. These examples are short summaries of peer-reviewed journal articles that used one of the techniques covered in the chapter so that students can see the practical application of that technique.
Data Source boxes that describe some common, publicly-available data sets like the Uniform Crime Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, State Court Processing Statistics, General Social Survey, and others are presented to provide practical applications to offset the often-abstract topic of statistics for criminal justice students.
The text has more coverage of probability than other comparable textbooks to better acquaint students with ist application to criminal justice.
Each chapter ends with a section on SPSS to be used with one or more pared-down versions of a major data set in SPSS format.
Extensive chapter review questions and exercises are included at the end of each chapter, with the answers to the odd-numbered questions/exercises included in the back of the book.