CRM 1001 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5-7: National Crime Victimization Survey, Uniform Crime Reports, Juggling

• School: Villanova University
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRM 1001
• Professor: remster

Document Summary

How can we accurately count how many children died. How do we decide how old a child is. The dis(cid:272)repa(cid:374)(cid:272)ies do(cid:374)"t (cid:373)atter (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause people a(cid:272)(cid:272)ept statisti(cid:272)s (cid:449)ithout e(cid:448)ide(cid:374)(cid:272)e a(cid:374)d people repeat these false statistics so bad statistics continue to spread. Some statistics start badly based on false data while others become bad: they can create public outrage and fear. In order to use statistics, we need to distinguish from bad and good statistics and think critically about them. Tatisti(cid:272)s are used for spe(cid:272)ifi(cid:272) purposes: politi(cid:272)s . To (cid:271)e (cid:272)riti(cid:272)al, (cid:449)e (cid:374)eed to u(cid:374)dersta(cid:374)d that the(cid:455)"re (cid:374)e(cid:448)er perfe(cid:272)t. It"s si(cid:373)ple (cid:374)u(cid:373)(cid:271)ers used to su(cid:373)(cid:373)arize (cid:272)o(cid:373)ple(cid:454) i(cid:374)for(cid:373)atio(cid:374) so so(cid:373)e i(cid:374)for(cid:373)atio(cid:374) is lost to the complexity: there is an inevitable limitation of statistics and every statistic is the product of choice. People choose definitions, measurements, and samples in order to emphasize certain parts of a problem. Every statistic is a compromise among choices.