Foundational Research Methods:Apply data analysis and foundational research methods in criminal justice settings.

1.

Identify a criminal justice problem or issue of interest to you. You will use this issue throughout the written response items.

• Describe two research designs that you could apply to the research problem you selected.
• Explain at least one strength and one limitation of each research design.
• Explain how you would use each research design in your criminal justice research.

2.

Select a probability or nonprobability sampling method to use for this discussion that you could apply to a research problem you have selected.

• Describe the sampling method you selected.
• Explain two strengths and two limitations of the sampling method.
• Explain how you would use the sampling method with your research problem or in criminal justice research generally.

3.

Explain the following:

• List the four levels of measurement.
• Provide an example of each of the four levels of measurement using the criminal justice research topic you chose in Item 1.
• Determine whether there are variables in this relationship that could be analyzed at more than one level of measurement. Explain why.
• Define the three measures of central tendency, including mean, median, and mode. Include the factors that must be considered when using each measure of central tendency and explain why they are important.
• Explainhow you could use each of the measures of central tendency to better understand the criminal justice research topic you chose in Item 1.

4.

Using the sample provided below, respond to the items that follow.

Sample:

Person	Number of Arrests
Bob	0
Johnny	1
Sarah	3
Julie	5
Barbara	0
Ken	2
Keith	8
Nicole	2
Sam	1
Stuart	3

1. What is the range of the sample?
2. What is the interquartile range of the sample?
3. What is the variance of the sample?
4. What is the standard deviation of the sample?

• Based on your calculations, explain the distribution and variance of the data.
• Explain how the ability to analyze the data in these ways can affect your criminal justice practice.
• Explain how the ability to understand data presented in these ways can affect citizens' understanding of crime.

Please list all resources and references.