Final Project Paper

Each student is expected to complete a minimum of 4-page project paper. Your final project paper is expected to contain:

(1) a short literature review: a brief, concise review of relevant literature of not more than 2 pages long,

(2) hypotheses testing, statistical analysis, and results: Since this is a statistics course it is expected that the statistical portion of your paper will be more fully developed.

- List at least 2 variables (independent and dependent variables) that will be measured in your research.

- You can use the datasets uploaded to the box -final paper file-, or a dataset you may already have and are familiar with, or one that was downloaded from ICPSR.

- The inclusion of each variable should be justified in terms of theory and prior research that suggests it would be an appropriate independent or dependent variable or will ha' some relation to either of these.

- Use the relevant statistical technique that we have covered in class to test your hypotheses.

- Explain and interpret your statistical results.

Grading will be heavily on this portion of your paper.

(3) Discussion and Conclusion: Draw conclusions and make recommendations.

Additional Instructions:

The process of writing the hypothesis testing, statistical analysis and results has bee broken down into 6 steps. Each step is described in detail below:

Step 1: Identify a problem and the panicular issue you would like to study.

Step 2: Identify the level of measurement for your dependent and independent variable

Variable 1: Nominal/ordinal/continuous ? (Dependent Variable)

Variable 2: Nominal/ordinal/continuous ? (independent Variable)

Variable 3: Variable Level of lvleasurernent

Step 3: State the null (1-10) and alternative (HL) hypotheses.

Step 4: Identify the critical value of the test stati5tic and state the decision rule (Alpha level). In criminal justice, we usually use an alpha level of .05 (a r-- ..05),. The critical value is the number that the obtained value must exceed in order for the null to be rejected. The decision rule is a priori statement formally laying out the criteria that must be met for Use SPSS to run a chi-squareit-test/ANOVAlcorrelatiOn analysis to test the relationship and report the obtained value of the test statistic.

Step 5: Select an appropriate statistical test. This is the analytical heart of the hypothesis test

Step 6: Make a decision about the null and state the substantive conclusion. You will  revisit your decision rule from Step 4 and decide whether to reject or retain the null based on the comparison between the critical and obtained values of the test statistic.

Then you will render a substantive conclusion. State the conclusion that you draw From the results of the analysis in terms of whether or not there is a relationship between the two variables. If you reject the null hypothesis, interpret the measures of association. How strong is the relationship? Would you say that this is a substantively meaningful  relationship?

You need to interpret your statistical findings and draw substantive conclusioDs that make sense. See your book to interpret your findings (i.e. see page 215 to interpret Chi-square findings, see page 250 to interpret your t-test findings; see pages 278 and 281 to interpret ANOVA findings).

Note: Your final paper should take a minimum of 4 pages (double-spaced, no larger than 12 pt. Font size, Times New Roman preferred).

Research papers should be uploaded via Canvas. Also, upload your output to Canvas.

No hardeopy will be excepted