Basic Statistics In Criminology And Criminal Justice

This introductory textbook takes a building-block approach that emphasizes the application and interpretation of statistics in research in crime and justice. This text is meant for both students and professionals who want to gain a basic understanding of common statistical methods used in criminology and criminal justice before advancing to more complex statistical analyses in future volumes. This book emphasizes comprehension and interpretation. As the statistical methods discussed become more complex and demanding to compute, it integrates statistical software. It provides readers with an accessible understanding of popular statistical programs used to examine real-life crime and justice problems (including SPSS, Stata, and R). In addition, the book includes supplemental resources such as a glossary of key terms, practice questions, and sample data. Basic Statistics in Criminology and Criminal Justice aims to give students and researchers a core understanding of statistical concepts and methods that will leave them with the confidence and tools to tackle the statistical problems in their own research work.

This book provides hands-on guidance for researchers and practitioners in criminal justice and criminology to perform statistical analyses and data visualization in the free and open-source software R. It offers a step-by-step guide for beginners to become familiar with the RStudio platform and tidyverse set of packages. This volume will help users master the fundamentals of the R programming language, providing tutorials in each chapter that lay out research questions and hypotheses centering around a real criminal justice dataset, such as data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, National Crime Victimization Survey, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, The Monitoring the Future Study, and The National Youth Survey. Users will also learn how to manipulate common sources of agency data, such as calls-for-service (CFS) data. The end of each chapter includes exercises that reinforce the R tutorial examples, designed to help master the software as well as to provide practice on statistical concepts, data analysis, and interpretation of results. The text can be used as a stand-alone guide to learning R or it can be used as a companion guide to an introductory statistics textbook, such as Basic Statistics in Criminal Justice (2020).

"...It is a great textbook for undergrads who are being exposed to statistics in the field for the first time and for Master’s students who need a better grasp of the fundamentals of statistics before taking more advanced courses..." —Calli M. Cain, University of Nebraska at Omaha "A must-have textbook for Instructors and students alike in the fields of Criminology and Criminal Justice. The book is user-friendly." —Bonny Mhlanga, Western Illinois University An Introduction to Statistics in Criminology and Criminal Justice Statistics for Criminology and Criminal Justice, Third Edition demonstrates how statistics is relevant to a student’s life and future career by illustrating the logical connections between basic statistical concepts and their real-world implications in criminology and criminal justice. Written for students with a limited mathematical background, author Jacinta Gau eases student anxiety around statistics by simplifying the overarching goal of each statistical technique and providing step-by-step instructions for working through the formulas and numbers. Students use real data from the field to build a foundational knowledge of statistics, rather than merely memorizing key terms or formulas. New to the Third Edition NEW Thinking Critically feature encourages students to apply the concepts from the chapter to real-life scenarios, with open-ended questions that are designed to inspire students to think about the nuances of science, statistics, and their application to criminal justice. Additional illustrations and examples in every chapter keep students engaged with the content and offer ample opportunities for them to practice the techniques. New and updated data sets from a wide range of relevant sources, such as the NCVS and UCR, BJS, LEMAS, the Census of Jails, and much more have been incorporated to give students insights into the state of criminal justice research today. New research on critical topics encourages students to discuss changes happening in the field such as the Census of Jails, inmate-on-staff assaults in prisons, and homicide rates. Practicing Statistics Whiteboard Videos, available in SAGE edge, walk students through statistical calculations to reinforce key concepts. Previous edition errors have been corrected by a statistician. Give your students the SAGE edge! SAGE edge offers a robust online environment featuring an impressive array of free tools and resources for review, study, and further exploration, keeping both instructors and students on the cutting edge of teaching and learning.

Using Statistics in Criminal Justice is designed to be an accessible, readable introduction to statistics, written with the criminal justice student in mind. The text teaches students not only how to engage in basic statistical analysis, but, more importantly, how they might use statistics in real and helpful ways. The book is designed for students to understand that statistics is a mechanism by which we take a picture of the world around us. Murray starts by taking students through the steps of creating a rough outline with basic descriptive statistics, then moves to providing more detail and clarity with sampling and inferential statistics. Finally, the author explains using multivariate techniques to fill in the details of the picture, making it more and more indicative of reality. Features: Carefully structured text provides an overview of concepts for each chapter, and explains how concepts in the book interrelate. Multiple examples for each analysis Practice questions at the end of each chapter Clearly ties in theory, methods and statistics , linking concepts from other courses Gives numerous step-by-step examples of analyses Information on how to use in a variety of software: STATA, SPSS and Excel to better accommodate various approaches Conversational tone with real world examples Application to professionals in criminal justice, not just undergraduate students Chapter on Evaluation Research gives students more marketable skills Workbook will be available on line with additional practice problems to use with statistical software

Statistics for Criminology and Criminal Justice, Fourth Edition offers students a practical and comprehensive introduction to statistics and highlights the integral role research and statistics play in the study of criminology and criminal justice. Packed with real-world case studies and contemporary examples utilizing the most current crime data and empirical research available, students not only learn how to perform and understand statistical analyses, but also recognize the connection between statistical analyses use in everyday life and its importance to criminology and criminal justice. Written by two well-known experts in the field, Ronet D. Bachman and Raymond Paternoster continue to facilitate learning by presenting statistical formulas with step-by-step instructions for calculation. This “how to calculate and interpret statistics” approach avoids complicated proofs and discussions of statistical theory, without sacrificing statistical rigor. The Fourth Edition is replete with new examples exploring key issues in today’s world, motivating students to investigate research questions related to criminal justice and criminology with statistics and conduct research of their own along the way. Give your students the SAGE edge! SAGE edge offers a robust online environment featuring an impressive array of free tools and resources for review, study, and further exploration, keeping both instructors and students on the cutting edge of teaching and learning.

Statistics for Criminal Justice and Criminology in Practice and Research is an engaging and comprehensive introduction to the study of basic statistics for students pursuing careers as practitioners or researchers in both Criminal Justice and Criminology programs. This student-friendly text shows how to calculate a variety of descriptive and inferential statistics, recognize which statistics are appropriate for particular data analysis situations, and perform hypothesis tests using inferential statistics. But it is much more than a "cook book." It encourages readers to think critically about the strengths and limitations of the statistics they are calculating, as well as how they may be misapplied and misleading. Examples of statistics and statistical analyses are drawn from the worlds of the practitioner as well as the policymaker and researcher. Students will also gain a clear understanding of major ethical issues in conducting statistical analyses and reporting results, as well as insight into the realities of the life of researchers and practitioners as they use statistics and statistical analyses in their day-to-day activities.

"Statistics for Criminal Justice and Criminology in Practice and Research is an engaging and comprehensive introduction to the study of basic statistics for students pursuing careers as practitioners or researchers in both Criminal Justice and Criminology programs. This student-friendly text shows how to calculate a variety of descriptive and inferential statistics, recognize which statistics are appropriate for particular data analysis situations, and perform hypothesis tests using inferential statistics. But it is much more than a "cook book." It encourages readers to think critically about the strengths and limitations of the statistics they are calculating, as well as how they may be misapplied and misleading. Examples of statistics and statistical analyses are drawn from the worlds of the practitioner as well as the policymaker and researcher. Students will also gain a clear understanding of major ethical issues in conducting statistical analyses and reporting results, as well as insight into the realities of the life of researchers and practitioners as they use statistics and statistical analyses in their day-to-day activities."--Publisher's website.