Instructions: This assignment requires you to apply the analytic skills you have learned in class. You have been given a small data set in Excel that you will use to answer a series of questions. Below is a list of variables included in the dataset (Sheet1). Please obey the following rules for the assignment - any deviation from these rules will result in a reduction of points on your overall grade.
• This is an individual assignment - you are not to work in groups.
• Round all answers to two decimal places.
• All work must be shown to receive full credit - You may use whatever program you like to demonstrate your work (i.e., Word or Excel or Handwritten), but a hard copy of your work must be submitted.
Sheet1: Variable Information
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Variable
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Definition
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Violent Crime Rate
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The number of violent crimes divided by the population of Texas. This number has been multiplied by 100,000 to get the violent crime rate per 100,000.
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Property Crime Rate
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The number of property crimes divided by the population of Texas. This number has been multiplied by 100,000 to get the property crime rate per 100,000.
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State Representative
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Election year for State Representative to Congress
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Population
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Number of citizens that reside in Texas.
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African American
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Percentage of the population of Texas that is African American.
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Hispanic
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Percentage of the population of Texas that is Hispanic.
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Male
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Percentage of the population of Texas that is Texas.
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18-34
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Percentage of the population of Texas that is between the ages of 18-34.
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65+
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Percentage of the population of Texas that is over 65.
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Graduates
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Percentage of the population of Texas that graduated from high school.
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Income
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Median level of income
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Unemployment
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Percentage of the population of Texas that is unemployed (and seeking employment).
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Single Mothers
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Proportion of the population of Texas that are single mothers.
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Homeowners
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Proportion of the population of Texas that are homeowners.
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Police
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Number of sworn officers per 10,000 population.
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Drug Arrests
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The drug arrest rate per 100,000 population.
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Firearms
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Number of firearms sold
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Abortion
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0 = abortion not legal; 1 = abortion legal
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Governor
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0 = governor is a democrat; 1 = governor is a republican
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Legislature
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0 = majority is democrat; 1 = majority is republican
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Gun laws
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0 = 2 or fewer gun laws; 1 = between 3 and 5 gun laws; 2 = more than 5 gun laws
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Number of firearms sold
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Rate per 100,000 population
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Hypothetical Scenario
Governor Abbottand the Texas legislature are seeking your help to better understand crime rates. Given that you are a criminal justice scholar at the University of Texas at San Antonio, they would like information regarding the different factors related to crime in order to develop policies that can reduce crime in Texas. Your empirical analyses and recommendations will be used in the decision to fund various programs throughout Texas. Given the significance of your recommendations, you want to conduct scientifically based analyses.
Part I
Before you begin your analyses, you want to have a better understanding of crime trends since 1973. The following is a graph depicting crime rates (i.e., violent and property) per 100,000 citizens in the United Statesover time (36 years) using UCR data. Please use this graph to answer the following questions.
1. Using the chart, please summarize (i.e., describe) the trend in property crimein 2-3 sentences. Please use numbers from the graph in your answer.
You will now focus on the data "you" have collected (courtesy of your generous professor).
2. Create a line graph (using the excel spreadsheet format provided - see Sheet2) of the property crime rate and the violent crime rate in Texas from 1960 to 2009.
3. In 3-4 sentences, compare and contrast property and violent crime rates in the graph you created and the graph that you were provided at the beginning of the assignment. Are the trends similar? Different? Do crimes peak around the same time?
Now that you have a better idea of what the crime trends in Texas look like over the past 50years, you decide to start examining the characteristics of Texas law enforcement. For example, you are interested in describing the size of the police force over the 50 years of data collection (1960 - 2009).
4. What is the mode for the number of police employed in Texas between 1960 and 2009?
5. In 1 sentence, interpret the mode (as reported in question #4) as an average of the number of police officers employed in Texas between 1960 and 2009.
6. What is the mean number of police that were employed in Texas between 1960 and 2009?
7. What is the median number of police officers that were employed in Texas between 1960 and 2009?
Now you are interested in understanding some of the social factors related to crime rates. One possibility is that Republican legislature is more effective at reducing crime. Thus, you want to evaluate the following hypothesis: Having a governor who is Republican is associated with lower levels of violent crime. The following information will help you fill in the table - over the 50 years of data collection, the mean violent crime rate is 482.76 per 100,000 persons.
8. Please fill out the following bivariate (2x2) table (report raw frequencies in the table) to help you evaluate this hypothesis.
9. What percentage of years is the violent crime rate at or above the mean?
10. Based on your analyses, please indicate whether this hypothesis is supported. Be sure to use information from your bivariate (2x2) table to support your answer (use numbers; hint: calculate within column percentages).
11. What is one additional hypothesis that you could test based on the data that you have collected?