405fa01_best

TO: Students in CJ 405
FROM: RBT
DATE: 10/8/01
RE: Assignment for Joel Best book Lies, damned lies, and statistics (California, 2001)

There is a lot of good stuff in Best's book, and he writes it clearly. I want to use this book in two ways. First, I want you to seek out and describe one of the two options presented below, and give a short presentation on it (5 minutes) either during class on 10/29 or during class on 11/5. We will probably take about an hour of each class for your presentation. You will be graded on it. The rubric I will use for grading appears below.

Second, there are some basic items in the book I think you should know about. I list those items at the end of this assignment. There will either be a required question on Best on the final exam, or an extra credit item, or both.

Why am I doing this? The Best book talks to us about the social side of numbers, and the commonsense questions that arise with statistics. It is important that you be familiar with some of these issues.

PRESENTATION OPTIONS

During your presentation you may present any of the following. I suggest you start keeping your eyes peeled for eligible items either from professional journals, or newspapers, or even television or radio. For tv, bring in the video; for radio, bring in the tape. The example does NOT have to be from criminal justice.

a bad statistic of any variety (could get that way through any of the procedures he describes)
an inappropriate comparison
a "stat war"
"bad" numbers driving out "good" ones

In your presentation I would like you to have a one page handout, that may have clippings in it, or may just be a straight handout. You want to briefly tell the class: what is the example you are presenting - give us the context; tell us which of Best's concepts it is an example of (is it an inappropriate comparison, for example?) and how it illustrates that concept.

Your example does not have to be a big, important one. It could be something pretty trivial.

Here is the grading rubric I will use.

	Less than satisfactory	Satisfactory	Excellent
Clarity of presentation	Fail to connect example to appropriate Best	Lacks clarity in describing example, or in linking it to appropriate Best material	Describes example clearly; states source; clearly links example to most appropriate Best material
Handout (no more than one page, one sided)	No handout	Handout but it does not have qualities indicated at right	Concise statement of example, with source indicated, and connection to Best described
Understanding of Best material	Presentation evinces insufficient understanding of Best material	Presentation shows understanding of Best material, but grasp may not be as strong as it could be, and/or the most appropriate Best concept for that example was not used.	Presentation and example show solid understanding of the Best topic material that is used, AND that topic material is the most appropriate for the problem example cited

THINGS TO KNOW FOR THE FINAL
- what makes a good statistic?
- what questions should we ask about definitions when looking a statistics for a social problem?
- what are the sources of bad statistics?
- what are mutant statistics? what are the sources of mutant statistics?
- explain how or why "bad statistics drive out good ones."
- what are inappropriate comparisons?
- what are the key points to a "critical" approach to statistics in the public arena?