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Unit VII. Deviance and Conformity
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Exploring Data
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Trends in Violent Crime Data Exercise
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Theme
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DescriptionYou will be analyzing trends in violent crime in the United States.
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Learning Goals
To learn where and how to find data.
To practice generating research questions.
To start thinking about the appropriate research steps that lead to answering sociological questions. -
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ActionsYou need to access the website for the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics table that reads “Bureau of Justice Statistics Violent Crime Rates.” You should see a table entitled “National Crime Victimization Survey Violent Crime Trends.”Back to top
Answer the following questions:
1. What do these rates (murder, rape, robbery, and assault) mean?
2. Over time, which type of violent crime consistently has the largest rate of occurrences in the US? Were you surprised by this? Now look at the graph of the overall trend among all types of violent crime.
2. What did you think had been happening to violent crime rates? Were you surprised?
3. What new questions do you have about this trend?
4. How might you proceed to find answers to your questions?
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More InformationIf you would like to know how each type if defined by the Department of Justice click on the links in the upper left hand corner that say “rape,” “robbery,” and “assault.”Back to top
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Creator/Source
Jennifer Gerdes, February 2008, adapted from a “Crime Exercise” by Stephen F. Steele, Anne Arundel Community College, June 2002.