CJ 161 SP 03
Criminal Justice Statistics
LAB02

PURPOSES, PROCEDURES AND WRITEUP INSTRUCTIONS

YOU WILL NEED: Two floppy disks with lots of space on them.

BASIC REQUIRED PORTION

Purposes:
1) To take data from a spreadsheet and IMPORT it into SPSS
2) To label the variables in the SPSS data file
3) To save the SPSS data file
4) To learn more about the 1999 rejection rate of firearms transfer applications under the Brady Bill, by various state level agencies. More specifically, you want to learn: what was the highest rate, what was the lowest rate, what was the average rate, and what was the median rate, and to generate a histogram of these data. Further, you will see where PA ends up in this pile of states on this variable, and offer suggestions to perhaps "explain" its relative position.
5) To write a report based on these data

TO PREPARE FOR THIS YOU SHOULD HAVE: Read the required pages in the SPSS book, and looked at the Gifford et al. PDF on-line reading; read up on histograms in G&S and B&P.

TRY FOLLOWING THESE INSTRUCTIONS STEP BY STEP

Steps

  1. Start SPSS

  2. If needed, get the SPSS data screen uppermost
  3. Start Netscape or IE
  4. Put your formatted floppy in the A drive
  5. Point the web browser at the course list of topics page
  6. Click on 161sp03_lab21.wk1. These data correspond to Table 5 in the Gifford et al. reading "Background checks for firearm transfers, 1999." See the bottom of that table for important details.
  7. Save the file to your A: floppy with the name 161LAB01.wk1 . The specifics of how you do this will depend on whether you are using IE or Netscape.
  8. Click on your SPSS data page
  9. Tell if you want to look at a new data file: /File /Open
  10. Tell it the File Type is LOTUS
  11. Point it to the file you have just downloaded
  12. Click on the box that says the variable names are the first data row
  13. Tell it to do it. At this point you should see 19 rows of data, and you should see four variables at the head of each column (variables are listed at the end of the steps)
  14. Click on each variable and write in some details about each variable - this is the VARIABLE NOT the Value LABEL
  15. Save the file to your A floppy. NAME IT: LAB0101
  16. Open a SYNTAX BOX in SPSS; or if one is open, get that on top
  17. Type in the program that appears below under THE COMMANDS YOU TYPE. This looks at the variable REJRATE and asks for a histogram, and four statistics: minimum, maximum, median, and mean (average). Be sure to type exactly as shown below under COMMANDS.
  18. After you have typed in the commands, save the syntax file to your A floppy
  19. Highlight the commands and run them
  20. View your output file
  21. Save your output file to disk
  22. Print your output file

VARIABLE NAMES THAT SHOULD APPEAR

STAGENCY - the state agency providing the data
APPSRCV - the number of applications for firearms received
APPSREJ - the number of firearms applications rejected
REJRATE - the percent of firearms applications rejected ((APPSREJ/APPSRVV)*100)

THE COMMANDS YOU TYPE INTO THE SYNTAX BOX

* FILENAME: LAB0101.SPS
* SYNTAX FILE GETTING DESCRIPTIVE INFO ON REJECTION RATE
* .
FREQUENCIES
  VARIABLES=rejrate
  /STATISTICS=MINIMUM MAXIMUM MEAN MEDIAN
  /HISTOGRAM
  /ORDER ANALYSIS .

LAB01 PAPER
DUE: 2/6 by 5:00 PM HAND DELIVERED TO ME AT THE START OF CLASS
PARAMETERS:
* No more than 2 pages, typed, double-spaced, except for the reference list
* Your SSN on the top right of each page; NO NAMES!!!!
* Be sure to follow all other paper policies as explained in the syllabus. Failure to follow the guidelines listed here or those in the syllabus will probably result in your losing points.

INSTRUCTIONS:
   You are writing up a newspaper report on these firearms transfer rejection rate data for these 19 state agencies, and on Pennsylvania's position with respect to these other 18 states. Tell the reader the following:

  1. * What does this variable -- REJRATE -- represent? - describe IN YOUR OWN WORDS but you can reference the Gifford et al. article if you wish

  2. * What was the lowest rate and what state had that?
  3. * What was the highest rate and what state had that?
  4. * What was the "typical" rejection rate (defend your choice of either the median or the average)?
  5. * Looking at the histogram, are there any scores that seem to be separated from the other scores? How many states? Which ones are they? How big is the gap between these three states and the nearest other state?
  6. * How do you explain PA's RELATIVE POSITION (not it's score) in this group of 19 states? -IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HERE BE SURE TO ASK 
  7. * Attach a copy of your printout

GRADING

  1. 10%

  2. 5%
  3. 5%
  4. 10%
  5. 20%
  6. 30%
  7. 10%
  8. 10% for correctly cited in-line references and complete reference list at the end of the paper

Grading rubric for part 6

To get a score of at least___ on this part:

You will

30%

Come up with a plausible explanation of PA's position; be interpreting PA's position correctly; discuss policy context; refer to Gifford et al. reading; bring in at least one other closely relevant outside resource

26%

Come up with a plausible explanation of PA's position; be interpreting PA's position correctly; discuss policy context; refer to Gifford et al. reading

22%

Come up with a plausible explanation of PA's position; be interpreting PA's position correctly; discuss policy context; refer to Gifford et al. reading; bring in at least one other closely relevant outside resource