Topic: Criminal Justice -Analysis of poverty and crime.

MATU-203 Final Project Instructions

  Mastering the concepts in Introductory Statistic assists in building critical thinking skills, developing businesses and organizations, and solving all types of problems that require data. But an understanding of statistic extends beyond the ability to crunch numbers or use a software program. The ability to collect, organize, and analyze data is the beginning. The ability to clearly communicate your results to another person is the mark of true mastery.

The assignment 

In this assignment, you will choose a scenario with data-from the topic Criminal Justice -Analysis of poverty and crime and you will construct a paper that pulls together the statistic you have learned to answer a question. You will:

1. Introduce the mail question and explain the data that you will use to address it.

2. Organize your data by providing appropriate charts, graphs and descriptive statistic

3. Analyze your data by conducting a hypothesis test

4. State your conclusions and recommendations

Topic: Criminal Justice -Analysis of poverty and crime

Outline of material to present

This assignment is broken into four parts: Collection of Data, Organization of Data, Analysis of Data, and Conclusion/ Recommendations. Each part has a subset of questions and issues you must addres. Please ensure that your report includes a section for each of the 4 parts listend below, and that each part addresses ALL of the sub-questions listed.

Part 1 Collection of Data - Introduction and Primary Data Analysis ( 3 - 5 paragraphs): 

1. Describe the objective: Before you can examine the data, you must understand the problem. 

a. Discuss the importance of this issue or situation.

b. Introduce the company or organization you are preparing this report for, and explain why it is important to them. 

c. What is the reseach question? In other words, what is the basic question you, as the researcher, want to address? Why should we care about it? d. Was this an experimental or observational study? Explain. 

2. Clearly and with sufficient detail, describe the population, sample, and collection methods in this study.

a. What is the population you are interested in?

b. What is the sample, specifically?

c. What is a plausible way the same was chosen and why? 

d. What problems or biases might have occurred from choosing that type of sampling method?

3. Discuss the type of data. 

a. Was the data quantitative or qualitative? Explain. 

b. What is the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio) ? Explain. 

4. Describe the variables

a. What are the independent and dependent variables? Give the type, units, and more specific information.

b. Give examples of any confounding variables, lurking variables, and/or missing variables and explain how they may be affecting your study.

Part 2: Organization of Data- Examination of descriptive Statistic (graphs and tables, and approximately 4 paragrapg) 

How that your data is collected, you need to organize it to identify characteristics and patterns.

1. Graph your data appropriately. Construct a scatterplot, bar graph, or other graph to show the nature of the data. for each graph, be sure you label the graph completely - that means give it a title, label the axes, and explain what that graph means in the context of this narrative.

2. Discuss whether the data is normally distributed. For this, use a visual inspection of a Histogram and Normal quantile plot, as well as what you see in the data itself and what that means about the high and low ends of the data. 

3. Calculate and present the three measuresof Central Tendency: mean, median, and mode. Provide both the valueof the statistics as well as an analysis of what they mean in terms of understanding the sample.

4. Calculate and present the measures of variation: range and standard deviation. Provide both the value of the statistics as well as an analysis what they mean in terms of understanding the sample. 

5. Calculate and present the 5-number Summary: minimun, Q1, median, Q3, maximum. . Provide both the value of the statistics as well as an analysis what they mean in terms of understanding the sample.

6. Identify any Outliers. You can do this using a visual inspection of the graph as well as the formulas from the textbook (HINT:Q1 - 1.5*IQR, and Q3 + 1.5*IQR). 

7. Discuss any corrections: Based on your inspection of the outliers are there any errors that should be corrected? how would you correct them? Discuss the implications of this result.

Part 3: Analysis of data- Examination of Inferential Statistics ( tables of results, and appropriate hypothesis test steps)

Assuming that all assumptions have been met, it is now time to analyze the data. Present a complete hypothesis test.

1. Identify the claim

2. State the null and alternative hypotheses, in words and in symbolic form.

3. Explain what type of test you will be performing (i.e. a test of two dependent means, a test for correlation, etc.) and why that test is appropriate to address the main question you are trying to answer.

4. Select the significance level and determine if it a one or two-tailed test.

5. Identify the test statistic and compute the value of the test statistic and the p-value.

6. Make a decision of whether to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis. 

7. Restate your decision in nontechnical terms. That means, state your conclusion in a way that anyone can understand; a final conclusion that just says “reject the null hypothesis” by itself without explanation is not helpful to those who hired you. Explain in ordinary terms what it means.

Part 4 Conclusion and recommendations (approximately 3 paragraphs)

Summarize and explain your results. Provide recommendations.

1. What can you infer from the statistic?

2. What information might lead you to a different conclusion?

3. What variables are missing?

4. What additional information would be valuable to help draw a more certain conclusion?

5. What qualitative or quantitative data would you want to collect if you were hired to do a follow up study?

Formatting Requirements

Your paper should be a word document, with embedded charts, graphs, figures, and tables. It should be APA or MLA format, with name and page number on each page, and should include each of the following:

1- Title page: You should have a cover page. The cover page should have the specific title of your study (Note: "MATU 203 paper" does not clearly define the topic you are presenting), your name, Brandman University, MATU 203, team, and year. You might find it helpful to include an image of something representative of the study to provide a visual context for your report.

2-  Write Up/Body: The body should be 5 - 8 pages with graph, images, screen shots of data output, and text included. Please use a "page break" to separate the cover from the body and the references from the body and the appendices from the reference page. 

3- References: Please include all articles, book, websites, publications, or other information that helped you reach your conclusion. The references come after the main body and before the appendix. At least two references are required, not incluring the textbook.

4-  Appendices: You must have an appendix. The appendix goes at the end of your paper and might be an additional 1 - 2 pages. In the appendix, include your given data as well as supplemental charts and graphs outside of the ones included in your paper. Label the appendices, appendix 1, appendix 2, and so on.

Study #5 Criminal Justice

Many public bodies seek to understand the issues surrounding criminal behavior so that they can find ways to reduce crime. You are asked to determine if there is evidence of a relationship between poverty and crime.

Since arrests do not equal convictions and number of convictions is not a good variable with the Three Strike Law in California, you decide to ask 31 random people in and around the Los Angeles courthouse over the month of July to voluntarily give you their family income and self-reported incidents of criminal activity for your study. Half of the respondents were awaiting trials of various types, and half were bystanders. You are asked to organize and analyze this data, and present your results with a hypothesis test on whether or not there is a correlation between family income and number of incidents of criminal activity.

Prepare this analysis for your local law enforcement agency. Please include your data, results, and related evidence from national studies.

Family Income (thousands)    Number of self-reported instances of criminal activity

160                                                            1

5                                                                8

12                                                              0

100                                                            1

18                                                              7

200                                                            0

16                                                              2

25                                                             10

40                                                               5

32                                                              13

14                                                              20

90                                                               1

30                                                                9

40                                                                6

15                                                              14

28                                                                10

30                                                                 8

120                                                               0

30                                                                10

40                                                                 4

35                                                                 4

47                                                                 2

51                                                                 3

75                                                                  0

130                                                                1

55                                                                   3

25                                                                    9

15                                                                    3

35                                                                    0

65                                                                     1

52                                                                     3