SIMPLE STATISTICS:APPL.IN SOC.RSRC-W/CD

Simple Statistics provides a concise, compelling, and reasonably priced introduction to basic statistics for students of criminology and criminal justice. Written in a conversational tone, this text does not "dumb down" the material. Rather, it demonstrates the value of statistical thinkingand reasoning in context. For example, Chapter 2 illustrates the various ways that "garbage in, garbage out" affects the substantive conclusions drawn from statistical analyses. This book covers essential statistical techniques. It does not attempt to provide an encyclopedic sweep of all statistical procedures. Author Terance D. Miethe shows how verbal statements and other types of information are converted into statistical codes, measures, and variables. Many texts don'tcover this process of operationalization and measurement--so most students don't have a clue as to how research methods and statistics are related or how to conduct statistical analysis from the bottom up. This textbook provides answers to both "how to do..." and "why we do..." statistical procedures. Most statistics texts emphasize the "how to do..."--to the neglect of the "why we do..." questions. The problems at the end of each chapter focus on applications to provide more context for "why wedo..." these procedures. The term informed consumer is frequently used to convey the importance of understanding social statistics for becoming a better student, employee, and citizen. The book uses hand computation methods to demonstrate how to apply the various statistical procedures. Most chapters also contain an optional section on how to do these procedures in SPSS and/or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. But such applications are not necessary for understanding the statisticalmethods described in this book. Several examples are used to illustrate each statistical procedure to help students understand and apply them. However, rather than overwhelming students with too many examples, the book offers a balance between computation methods and examples of how to do them. Specific problems, detailed summaries, key terms, and major formulas are provided at the end of each chapter to further highlight major points. A comprehensive Instructor's Manual, written by Miethe, is available.