Quantitative Skills for Criminologists

• • Why statistics?
  • Describing data
  • Making inferences
  • Comparing groups 1
  • Comparing Groups 2
  • Bringing it together
  • Exploring relationships
  • Introducing regression
  • From simple to multivariate
  • Applying regression
  • Bringing it together

Equivalent subjects

You should not enrol in this subject if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:

• GRF-MCCJ7036 (Not currently available)

Additional requirements

• Software requirements - IBM SPSS Student Version 24.0

This subject was previously known as Quantitative Social Research.

This subject is designed to equip students with the skills needed to process and analyse raw quantitative social science data.

We see statistics everywhere. "There was a 20% reduction in crime rates in the past year"; "offenders with social support networks are 1.4 times more likely to successfully complete drug court orders".  Where do these numbers come from? How do we interpret them?  And how do we know whether we can trust them? Learning about quantitative analyses is important in criminology and in social sciences in general, as it provides the skills to understand, interpret, and criticize the statistics that surround us. Further, it will provide a range of fundamental skills critical to leading and participating in research projects in a number of different sectors.

This subject will cover the nature and use of statistics in criminological and criminal justice research, the description of samples and populations, as well as the tools to describe data and relationships, and to test statistical hypotheses. It will also introduce some basic statistical tools for multivariate analysis.

The value of statistics is not limited to academic projects. These are very marketable and valuable skills that are of use in other public and commercial organisations.

• Analysis Report 2 (45%)
• Online Quiz (20%)
• Analysis Report 1 (35%)

For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).