TRACK A: Assignment Paper 1
In this assignment you will have the opportunity to explore an existing data base and utilize some of the concepts from the textbook covered in this module.
Choose one (1) of the following options:
Education: Review the data tables in the ‘Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2015’ report. The data tables are listed on pages 126-193 of the report. Choose two or three of the data tables and write a paper as described below. Access the report by clicking on the following link https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/iscs15.pdf
Health and Welfare: Visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr005.pdf (click on the web address to access the report), which includes 11 data tables relating to information on patients discharged from hospitals in 2006 [the data tables begin on page 9 of the report]. Choose two or three of the data tables and write a paper as described below.
Write a 4-5 page paper (which includes only the body of the paper, not cover pages, bibliographies, charts, etc.) that addresses the following:
1) Identify the specific data tables/bases you selected. [Include the data table number as well as the page number]
2) A brief description of the data sets. That is, what variables were examined in the data set, when were the data collected, etc.?
3) List three (3) distinct social regularities (see Babbie, 2013, pp. 6-7) that could be studied with the data sets you analyzed (list a total of three, not three for each data table). Explain why studying each of these issues would be relevant — that is, why is it important that these data be analyzed and studied (how, and to whom, is this information of value)? For example, if you chose data sets related to types of crimes and the victims of those crimes, a ‘social regularity’ that could be studied might be the type of violent crime and the victim’s race/ethnicity and/or gender. That is, a researcher would be trying to establish (through the data available in the data set) whether these is a pattern or regularity in regard to whether a person’s race/ethnicity and/or gender make them more likely to be a victim of various types of violent crimes.
[Note: The instruction here states that you should list three “distinct” social regularities – so for instance, using our example of whether a person’s race/ethnicity and/or gender make them more likely to be a victim of various types of violent crimes, do not list that one regularity would be to determine whether African-American females are more likely to be victims of assault with a deadly weapon, and then a second regularity as to whether Hispanic males are more likely to be victims of homicide, and a third regularity as to whether White females are more likely to be victims of rape. Each of these regularities or patterns is important, but they are similar and not distinct, so the goal would be to come up with three ‘distinct’ or different regularities or relationships.]
4) Based on the three social regularities you identified in the previous step, specify the Independent Variable(s) and the Dependent Variable(s) in researching each of those three social regularities, with an explanation of why each specific variable is independent and dependent. Use ideas from the textbook (or the websites provided for the Discussions assignment) to support your explanation.
The number of points you receive will be based on the quality of your explanations (e.g. were the social regularities you cited relevant and interesting, etc.;?), whether your paper correctly identified the independent and dependent variables, as well as whether you have incorporated and cited materials from the textbook.
See the ‘Track A: Assignment Paper Rubric’ (in the Course Menu in the left sidebar) for full details on how points will be allocated.
Reference for the textbook:
Babbie, E. (2013). Social research counts. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage.
